Total Drama Emblem
by PPP SSC
Summary: The Total Drama characters star in a Fire Emblem game. No FE experience necessary; pairings optional; see the author's note within. Rated T for violence. Obviously, AU. When complete, it will contain all characters from TDI, TDA, and TDWT.
1. Awakening

Author's Note: This story's structure is based on a video game series. Because of this, there are many potential choices that will not be published in the story. For this reason, there are three uses of reviews for this story: the first is the standard; giving feedback. The other two can also be discussed in the PMs, and they are **"Please Send Me Goodies" **and **Q&A.**

"**Please Send Me Goodies" function: **At the end of each chapter there will be an author's note detailing some extras that I can send to anyone who asks for them. You may shop from the list, or ask me to send you everything for the chapter. You may also subscribe to any specific one of them, which will mean that I will send you those goodies after every chapter they are available.

**Q&A: **I am well aware that many of the people in this fandom have not played Fire Emblem and may find themselves confused. Don't worry. If you are confused by something, send me a question and I will explain it to the best of my ability. By the way, a "vulnerary" is the standard unit of medicine.

_Total Drama Emblem_

_Prologue: Awakening_

Chris McLean was one of the most influential men in Canada. He was famous and wealthy, but also very evil. One day, by complete accident, he stumbled upon an item that granted him enough power to take over the world. The world run by Chris was desolate and dark. There was only one group that could stand up to him; those whom he had tormented before. After the turn, they began training in order to restore the world to its former glory, all except for Courtney.

Courtney had spent the last few weeks in a coma, because she dared to attack Chris when her power was low. She had intended to stop him before he grabbed the item, but she was too late. She had not learned that the world had been taken over, so when she woke up, she was in for quite a shock.

She looked around her, and saw that she was in the middle of a field. She stood up, and noticed that everything around her was quiet. "What… what's going on?" she asked in a panicked state.

Chris looked at Courtney and said, "Well, what happened was… the world is mine." He laughed.

Courtney said, "No! It can't be."

"Oh but it is!" Chris said. Then he fled, shouting, "See ya, Courtney!"

"The world… is his…" Courtney said, not quite believing it herself. She slumped over.

A new intern, who was just starting to work for Chris, appeared. He was carrying a satchel and an axe. The satchel contained a book, a bow, some arrows, and a vulnerary. He told Courtney, "Bridgette left this here for you," and handed her the bag.

"Bridgette?" Courtney asked, "Is she okay?"

"That's not important right now," the new intern said, swinging his axe around, "Anyway, Chris told me to stop you from doing anything funny."

Courtney equipped her bow, and then said, "Not if I have anything to say about it."

She approached the new intern, and the new intern approached her.

Courtney asked, "What is going on here?"

The new intern responded, "Don't worry about it, Courtney. Chris isn't the worst overlord in the world."

"Yes, he is!" Courtney corrected.

"If you think so," the new intern warned, "Then you have to fight me."

She shot him with an arrow. He got closer to her, and swung his axe in her general direction, but she dodged the attack. She opened the book, and managed to cast a spell, which caused a ray of light to hit the new intern. He hit her with his axe, which wounded her. Her light hit the new intern again, which caused him to drop dead.

He said as he fell, "Such force… maybe you're right."

"Oh my god," Courtney said, "I just killed a man." From weakness of heart and body, Courtney fell back down.

"Courtney?" someone asked. "Courtney?"

It was Alejandro, who was now riding on a steed. He picked Courtney up and carried her out of the vicinity.

Author's Note: Goodies available in this chapter include **unit descriptions (Courtney) **and **death quotes (Courtney, Duncan lives). **


	2. New World Order

Author's Note: A dragon shield, or Dracoshield, is an item that permanently increases the defense of the unit. A Seraph robe permanently increases the total health of the unit.

_Chapter 1: New World Order_

Courtney got up and was confused.

"Hey, Courtney," Alejandro said, "I think we'd all be happier if you stopped fainting." He was wearing white armor.

"Yeah," said Katie, who, along with Sadie had appeared by Courtney and Alejandro. Katie was wearing red armor and Sadie was wearing green armor.

Courtney looked at them and said, "Well, I'm just glad you three are okay." She moved over, and saw not just Alejandro's horse, but three horses, sitting outside the window. "Okay, can somebody explain the horses?"

"Well," Katie said, "We were training to stand up to Chris, so we got some horses."

"I am now a _caballero. _It's fitting, no?" Alejandro asked.

"Oh, of course," Sadie fawned.

"And the armor?" Courtney asked.

"Well, we're not going to rush in without guarding ourselves like you!" Katie said. She handed Courtney a dragon shield. "Here, this should help keep you from hurting yourself."

The four of them headed to a field, whereupon they saw several soldiers. "Oh, no, it's worse than I thought," Alejandro said, "Let me protect you."

"I can handle these enemies," Courtney said.

Katie had a lance equipped; Sadie had a sword. Alejandro had a more powerful sword. He cut down any of the enemy soldiers who got near him like paper. Katie was having a bit more trouble. Sadie found several surrounding her. Courtney shot one with her bow, and Sadie was freed. Alejandro went to a nearby house.

The woman inside said, "Oh? You're going to be fighting Chris? How brave. Take this item. It will make your journey easier." Alejandro took the Seraph robe from her and put it in his bag.

Courtney, meanwhile, visited another house on the south end. She received a lance. She didn't know how to use it, so she gave it to Katie. Eventually, most of the soldiers had fallen, except for one. He was a disgruntled producer. He seemed to be the leader of the group and he was wearing bulky armor. He shouted, "Hey, kids! You shouldn't be playing over here, you know."

Katie tried to attack the disgruntled producer. He said, "Stupid Chris took over the world… maybe I'll just take it out on you." He did wound her slightly, but she could not penetrate his armor at all. Sadie stayed back, because she knew that Katie was stronger.

Alejandro tried. When he approached the producer, he said, "Alright, maybe I was a little heinous in the past, but surely we can put this behind us."

The disgruntled producer responded, "This is all your fault. _You _encouraged Chris to take over the world."

"Oh, blame it on the reality show plant. Really mature of you," Alejandro responded. He attacked with his sword, and he did do some damage to the disgruntled producer; surely more than he received in return. However, the disgruntled producer did not fall to his blow.

Courtney said, "Surely you must understand by now that Chris isn't the best."

"I could admit you were right, or I could kill you," the disgruntled producer said. "I'd rather do the second."

Courtney sighed, took out her book, and cast a spell of light toward the disgruntled producer, which caused him a major injury, which none of the physical weapons had done previously. Alejandro provided the final blow with his sword, and the disgruntled producer died. Just before he died, he said, "Argh, I admit defeat. But you'll never beat Chris."

Alejandro looked around for any more enemy soldiers. "Oh, that was close."

"So, why are you trying to be the hero all of the sudden?" Courtney asked.

Alejandro shook his head and said, "I was only being evil with the understanding that it wouldn't affect the whole world. Chris… he's something else, you know?"

"I know," Courtney said, "How are we going to deal with it?"

"We can start a resistance. We already have four members right here," Alejandro told her.

"Yes," Courtney said, "That's a great idea. You can lead."

"No, Courtney," Alejandro said, "_You _should lead."

"Me? Why me?" Courtney asked.

"You have a very special skill set, you know. It's not everyone who can do both archery and light magic," Alejandro said, "Plus, you have a very authoritative personality."

"Well, that _is _true I guess," Courtney said.

"Courtney's Resistance!" Alejandro suggested.

"That's an awesome name, Alejandro," Katie said.

"Well, it was pretty obvious," Courtney said.

"I still get credit for it," Alejandro said.

"So," Sadie asked, "What do we do first?"

"I… I don't know," Courtney admitted.

"I think that I heard that Bridgette and DJ are keeping a sanitarium to the east. Maybe we can rendezvous with them there," Alejandro suggested.

"Bridgette's okay!" Courtney said happily. "And DJ too… that's great."

"To the eastern sanitarium!" Katie shouted.

The three on horseback rode away, and Courtney ran after.

Author's Note: Goodies available in this chapter include **unit descriptions (Alejandro; Katie; Sadie), death quotes (Alejandro; Katie; Sadie), **and **alternate versions of the ending dialogue (dead Alejandro; dead Katie/Sadie).**


	3. Those Less Fortunate

_Chapter 2: Those Less Fortunate_

Bridgette and DJ both wandered around the inside of the sanitarium, looking at sick and injured children, widows, and senior citizens, healing them with the staves they held. Bridgette sighed. DJ turned to her and asked, "Bridgette, what's wrong?"

"Oh, it's nothing, I'm just…" Bridgette said, trailing off. She closed her eyes and looked like she was going to cry.

"Bridgette, if you're worried about our friends, I can understand that; but in times like this, we have to try to keep a smile on our faces," DJ said, "Because we need to keep people's spirits up. And if you get depressed, then we won't be able to do that."

"You're… you're right, DJ," Bridgette said. Then, outside the door a loud noise was heard. Bridgette turned to DJ, and asked him, "What was that?"

"I don't know," DJ said. He and Bridgette boarded some horses and rode outside. DJ noticed that there was an ambush. "Oh no!"

"What are we going to do, DJ?" Bridgette asked, panicked.

"I'm sure something will turn up," he assured. Courtney's Resistance showed up from the southwest.

"Need some help?" Courtney asked. Bridgette turned to face her.

Overjoyed, she said, "Courtney! I'm so glad that you guys are here." She and DJ rode over to greet them. "We definitely can't fight off this ambush. Neither of us has any fighting skills to speak of. But we can help you guys out."

"Don't worry, my dear," Alejandro said, "We'll take care of everything." Bridgette squinted, and noticed someone standing in a group of the soldiers. He wore a cowboy hat and carried a sword.

"Is that…?" she asked.

He turned to the man who appeared to be his leader, and asked, "Uh, what was I supposed to do again?"

The boss was an intern, although he was frustrated with the business, and wanted to resign. He sighed and said, "Idiot! You've been told time and time again what you were supposed to do! Why didn't I just kill you while I had the chance?"

"Like, because I said that if you spared me, I'd invite you to my luau…" he responded.

Katie and Sadie teamed up to fight a group of soldiers, and managed to beat most of them, but as a result were injured fairly badly. Bridgette and DJ stood behind, waving their staves at the girls, which made them feel better. Meanwhile, Courtney and Alejandro began attempting to clear a path to reach Geoff.

Alejandro put his sword away, so that in case Geoff attacked him, neither of them would die. When Geoff spied Alejandro he rushed over to him, and yelled, "_You! _You tried to steal my girl!"

Alejandro responded to this comment by saying, "Well, now your girl and I are in Courtney's Resistance, and you're getting in our way."

Geoff was annoyed. He responded, "You can't be telling the truth! Bridgette would never side with you!" He swung his sword around and hit Alejandro hard with it. It wasn't enough to kill, but it was enough that it warranted DJ's immediate attention.

Bridgette rode over to Geoff as quickly as she possibly could. Before Geoff had a chance to attack Alejandro, he spied her, and headed toward her.

"Geoff!" she called.

"Bridgette!" he responded.

She asked in confusion, "How did you end up getting mixed up with the enemy?"

Geoff responded, "I dunno, Bridgette, but now I can get back to the side of the righteous."

"Good," Bridgette said.

Geoff swung his sword around, cutting down most of the soldiers surrounding him.

While they were doing that, DJ had other business to take care of. It happened that DJ and Bridgette had founded the sanitarium right near his mother's house, and so he went in to warn her.

"Momma!" he shouted. "You should get out of here before something terrible happens to you."

"Oh, no. No son of mine is fighting in a war! Even if it is for the sake of the world," she responded.

"But, Momma… people I _love _could die if I don't help. Please… you must understand…" he said, starting to cry.

"Oh, alright," she responded. "But promise me that you won't die!"

"I promise, Momma," DJ said.

"I won't let you," she said.

"Thanks, Momma," DJ responded, and then he left, going over to heal Courtney, who had gotten herself wounded by a couple of axe-fighters.

Alejandro reequipped his sword and with the codependent girls, he went to fight the leaving intern. Katie attacked first, and he said to her, "No one passes through here alive!" She did some damage to him, although it was certainly not enough to frighten him. He tried to harm her, but unfortunately missed.

Courtney and Geoff, due to being on foot, had to take more time to catch up. Courtney approached him, and said, "Chris has got to go! And I have to stop him!"

"I can't let you do that Courtney. He's much too dangerous. What I'm doing now is for your own good," he said before she shot an arrow at him, and she didn't entirely believe him as he swung an axe in her face. He missed, but barely. She shot another arrow at him.

Geoff decided to take the lead. He approached the leaving intern.

"You were supposed to stop them!" he said indignantly.

"And you were supposed to stop me," Geoff countered.

"I still can…" the intern said. Geoff landed the fatal blow, although he was not as fancy with his movement this time as when he attacked Alejandro and some others. He muttered out, "Why couldn't I have resigned earlier?" before dying.

"Is everyone okay?" Bridgette asked.

"I think so!" Courtney said. "That was close."

"Agreed, but we can't let up. This is proof that the world is in a state of dangerous warfare," Alejandro said. "We'll all need to work together in order to stop Chris's army."

"Yes," Geoff said. "I hate to admit it, but Ale-jerk-dro is right."

"But what can we do?" Courtney asked.

"I heard that some of our old friends were being held hostage in Camp Wawanakwa," Bridgette said, "It might have been a false rumor, but, is it really worth risking?"

"I don't think so," Courtney said, "If there is a danger that someone is being held prisoner, we have to do everything we can to help them."

"Plus, going to Camp Wawanakwa could lead us to Chris," Sadie reasoned.

"Excellent point!" Katie responded.

"Alright, so I guess, to Wawanakwa we go," Courtney said.

Author's Note: Goodies available in this chapter include **unit descriptions (Bridgette; DJ; Geoff), death quotes (Bridgette; DJ; Geoff, player; Geoff, enemy), alternate battle dialogue (DJ's mother's house w/ someone other than DJ; someone other than Alejandro fights Geoff), **and **alternate versions of the ending dialogue (didn't get Geoff; someone other than Alejandro is dead).**


	4. Infiltrating the Cabins

Author's Note: A "Support" is a conversation between two units that leads to help in battle, and in some cases, a special ending. Support (level C) is the first and lowest level, so, no, you didn't miss any. Vulnerary is defined in the prologue.

_Chapter 3: Infiltrating the Cabins_

Courtney's Resistance reached the entrance to Camp Wawanakwa. Courtney sighed. "Oh, this place sure brings back memories… bad memories."

"Oh, look, Sadie!" Katie shouted, "It's our old cabin!"

"Want to have a look inside?" Bridgette asked.

"It wouldn't hurt," Courtney answered. She walked over to the cabin door, and opened it, only to find a group of soldiers, as well as someone who appeared to be cleaning the floors.

"Sir!" one of the soldiers shouted, "Unwanted young adults approach!"

"I'm getting too old for this job," he said, putting his mop down, and taking up a lance. "Alright, if you want to get in here, you're going to have to go through me first."

"We can do that," Courtney said.

Courtney was steadfast in attempting to get to the busy handyman, who had taken up the weapon. The three mounted knights tried to slash through a group of soldiers who were blocking a container. One of them dropped a key, which Sadie used to open the container. Inside, she found a vulnerary, which she put in her pocket, and then handed it to Bridgette, when it looked like an enemy was about to kill her.

Before he could, Geoff put a stop to it, by using the fancy moves he was now well known for in his group. DJ, meanwhile, followed Courtney, making sure that no matter what happened to her, he would be able to heal her. He knew that if Courtney died, the resistance would die too.

Courtney eventually made it to the busy handyman, who said to her, "Can't you see I'm trying to clean up here?"

Courtney responded, "The very act seems suspicious."

The busy handyman shook his head and said, "Sorry, young lass, but I have to say goodbye to you." Before he could do anything, Courtney hit him with a ray of light, which caused him harm, but did not kill him.

Geoff decided to come to the rescue, and attacked the busy handyman too, following Courtney's example. "Hey," the busy handyman said, "I just cleaned that up." Without using fancy swordsmanship, Geoff was unable to finish him off. However, he got just close enough, that when Courtney fired an arrow at him, he fell to the ground. As he fell, he asked "Is this because of the hostages?"

Courtney understood the situation better than she let on as she asked, "What hostages?"

"Dang," the busy handyman said, dying. Courtney went and usurped the spot he was guarding. It was only a nightstand, but it had a mysterious letter on it.

Courtney picked up the letter from the table, and said, "It's from Chris."

Alejandro was impatient. "Well don't just stand there, _open it!" _he shouted.

Courtney opened up the letter, and read it aloud. "Attention minions; some of the fan favorites have gotten the urge to start a resistance. Please lock them away for me, because if they get anywhere with their ideas of resistance, soon my entire world domination will fall apart. You don't have to kill them but torturing them is highly recommended."

"Oh no," Bridgette said, "It's worse than I thought…"

"What are we gonna do?" DJ asked.

"We're going to find the fan favorites and free them," Courtney said, "If they wanted to start a resistance, they probably still want a resistance now. Which means they can be very valuable."

"It's true; our group does need someone whom people actually like to make up for my presence," Alejandro said.

"But where could they be?" Bridgette asked.

Courtney spread out a map of Camp Wawanakwa, and pointed to where they were. She said, "We're here. The diagram on the letter clearly shows that they were supposed to be taken that way," pointing in the direction.

"That looks like where the mess hall is!" DJ said, "You think they're being held there?"

"I don't know," Courtney said, "But it's worth a shot."

"Agreed," Bridgette said. "Better safe than sorry."

"I don't know about this, guys…" Sadie said.

"Don't worry," Alejandro said, "I'll protect you all, AND the favorites can be freed. I swear on my honor."

Author's Note: Goodies available for this chapter include **alternate versions of the ending dialogue (didn't kill Busy Handyman; didn't kill any enemies; Alejandro is dead; someone other than Alejandro is dead) **and **Katie and Sadie's Support (Level C)**.


	5. Free the Favorites

_Chapter 4: Free the Favorites_

A locked cage sat in the middle of the mess hall, surrounded by soldiers. Gwen, Noah, and Cody sat inside it. "It's my fault we got into this mess," Cody said.

"You can say _that _again! I explicitly mentioned this was a preliminary stage… a preliminary stage…" Noah responded.

"Well, does it matter?" Gwen asked, "The point is, we have no chance."

"Don't give up, guys," Cody said, "I'm sure help will arrive."

"Before our bodies and wills are broken beyond repair?" Noah asked.

"Calm down," Cody said. "Even if no one comes to save me… they'll come to save you two."

"I… I hope you're right," Gwen said, sadly.

Courtney's Resistance entered through the door. Courtney shouted, "Don't worry, guys! We'll save you!"

"What?" Noah asked incredulously.

"I told you so!" Cody said, smiling, "I knew they'd come! I knew they would!"

"If only there was some way to get into the cage," Courtney said.

After she said this, Duncan climbed in through the window. "Now, this just isn't right," he said, "I have to do something here."

"Duncan?" Courtney asked in surprise, but he didn't hear her. As Geoff and Alejandro tried to remove the enemies blocking her way, Courtney made her way to him. Once he was within earshot, she shouted again, "Duncan!"

Duncan smiled and asked, "What's up princess?"

Courtney responded impatiently, "You know very well what's up. Chris took over the world!

Duncan asked, "And what do you want me to do about it?"

"Help us to defeat him!" Courtney responded, getting angry.

"I hate to admit it," Duncan said, "But you're right. Okay, I'll be your power."

"Thanks, Duncan," Courtney replied.

Sadie whittled down a mysterious cabinet door, behind which she found three unusual containers. She didn't know how to get into them, but Duncan did. He opened each with ease, finding a spell book for fire spells, one for dark magic, and a small sword. He handed the last to Sadie for safekeeping. Katie and Sadie rushed over to help Geoff and Alejandro, who had gotten wounded badly enough that Bridgette and DJ were both busy.

Duncan, meanwhile, had more important business to attend to. He opened the cage. The three stumbled out, although they were completely unarmed. Duncan said to Gwen, "Hey, babe."

"Duncan!" Gwen shouted excitedly.

"Don't worry," Duncan responded, "From now on, we'll protect you."

Gwen responded, "Thanks…" and trailed off. Duncan handed her the dark magic book, for which she was grateful.

His attention turned to Noah. "Well, well, well…" he said.

Before he could continue, Noah interrupted him to say, "Just because you rescued me doesn't give you an excuse to act like yourself."

"I'll keep that in mind," Duncan said, "If you keep it in mind that you need to stop being a dork."

Noah said, unimpressed, "Four seconds. It's a new record." Duncan handed him the fire spell book, which he took for granted, mainly because Duncan had given it out. But Duncan didn't care so much, because shortly after, he noticed Cody glaring at him.

"I'm watching you," Cody said.

"What?" Duncan asked.

"Don't you dare go after Gwen!" Cody shouted.

"I'll go after Gwen if I want to," Duncan responded, and then, to add insult to injury, blatantly did not supply Cody with a weapon. Sadie gave him the small sword she had been holding onto, which pleased him greatly.

Soon, Gwen and Noah were fighting from behind Katie and Sadie. One soldier threw a javelin at Noah, which wounded him near the point of death. Fortunately, Bridgette was just behind to heal his wounds, and the act ended up in the soldier himself being critically injured, due to Noah's extremely impressive magic skill. He had literally no experience in the field of war, but figured magic out quickly anyway.

Cody decided to take the initiative and finish off the soldier who attacked Noah. This worked, but unfortunately, soon, he was surrounded by soldiers, who all attacked him. The only thing that kept him from dying was their horrible accuracy. Noah decided to return the favor and finish off one of them, but Gwen helped too this time. DJ picked up Cody and carried him to safety on his horse, at which point, he healed Cody.

Once only one—an intern in bulky armor—remained, he shouted, "Ack! I can't believe I came back here! They're approaching!" Courtney approached him. He said, "A lot has changed while I've been gone… a rebellion has popped up."

"Do not make me hurt you, because I will," Courtney said.

"Do your worst," the returning intern responded. Courtney obliged, by sending a ray of light at him. He moved away from Courtney and went to attack Duncan. He said to Duncan, "Stop! Don't you dare free the hostages!"

Duncan responded, "Come on, you tried to capture me too, but it didn't work."

"I'll kill you," shouted the returning intern.

"Good luck with that," Duncan said. It turned out to be an entirely pointless endeavor, as when the returning intern attacked Duncan, he did a back flip and dodged it. When Duncan counterattacked, however, the armor was not even slightly penetrated.

"You… you escaped! Aaaah!" the returning intern shouted, but it was too late. Noah sent a pair of flames at the intern, which did not kill him, but left him pretty well damaged. He walked away from there to attack an exposed Bridgette. "Why did I ever come back here? Why?" Bridgette took the blow. It was painful, but DJ was around to help her.

Cody decided to risk attacking him. It was a gambit to be sure. Cody knew that he couldn't defeat the man without all the help he could get. He damaged the intern slightly, and then the intern returned the favor by damaging him greatly. This was the motivation he needed. Acting like Geoff had always done, Cody swung his sword around and managed to land the fatal blow. "Am I being forced to repent?" he asked as he fell.

Courtney and Duncan led the others out of the mess hall and they regrouped in the Bass girls' cabin.

"Thank you for saving us," Gwen said, "I thought we were goners for sure."

"Don't mention it," Duncan responded. "You know, this has gotten pretty bad."

"Wow," Noah said, "That was definitely necessary to say. We totally _didn't know that."_

"Don't mind him." Cody said, "He's just cranky. We haven't had anything to eat in almost a week."

"Oh my gosh!" Bridgette shouted, "No wonder you look so sickly."

"Well, don't worry." DJ said, "I'll make you all a meal to remember."

"At this point, I'd happily eat a meal I'd like to forget…" Gwen said.

Author's Note: Goodies available in this chapter include **unit descriptions (Duncan; Gwen; Noah; Cody), death quotes (Courtney, dead Duncan; Duncan, early; Gwen, other; Gwen, player; Noah, other; Noah, player; Cody, other; Cody, player), **and **alternate versions of the ending dialogue (Didn't get Duncan; someone other than Duncan died).**


	6. Into the Woods

_Chapter 5: Into the Woods_

After a good-sized meal, the group met again in the cabins.

"So, what do you think we should do?" Duncan asked.

"I think that there's only one thing to do… to find Chris," Courtney responded.

"But where?" Alejandro asked.

"It doesn't matter yet," Gwen responded, "None of us are strong enough to fight him yet."

"Besides," Cody said, "Look at our numbers. We definitely need more people before we can even consider it."

"Well, then I guess," Courtney said, "We'll try to find everyone we competed against, and see if they can help in the cause."

"And where do you suppose we'll be able to find them?" Noah asked, "I mean, it's not like_ everyone_ is going to be sitting in a cage waiting to be rescued."

"That's true," Courtney said, "Which is why we'll have to be thorough. If they are ready for combat, they should be around here somewhere."

"So, what you're saying is that we should search this entire general area for them," Duncan said, "That's great, princess, except for one thing."

"What?" Courtney asked.

"What if they _aren't _around here?" Duncan asked.

"We can send a small group to check for communications," Courtney said. "But first, let's see what we can see over here."

"In the woods?" Gwen asked incredulously, "I really don't think that they'll end up in the woods…"

"Hey, it's worth checking, isn't it?" Courtney asked. "Remember: one oversight by us could mean one more casualty for our friends."

"Okay, Courtney," Duncan said, "Look, I know you're right... we'll have to check everywhere."

The group headed directly for the forest. A young reporter was being chased into a small hut by a man. "But you don't understand!" he shouted, "I'm awesome! Ask anyone in the biz!"

"It doesn't matter," the man chasing him said, "You're in my way, and as such, I'm going to have to block your exit."

"Well, that's just not cool," he said, locking the door behind him.

"Hey!" Courtney shouted, when her resistance met up with the man, "What are you doing with that man?"

"He's trying to get 'the scoop' on Chris or something. Whatever it means, he's dangerous, so we trapped him," the man said.

"Well, you know what? You just earned yourself a world of hurt," Duncan said.

"Oh really?" he said, "Whatever. You guys… reinforce… or something."

"You seem… really happy to be here," Noah said.

"So do you," the man said.

"Touché," he replied.

The enemies appeared from every side. "Oh no!" Courtney shouted, "Courtney's Resistance! Charge!"

Noah, Cody, Gwen, Duncan, and Courtney headed toward the east, where they ran into the man in charge. He was a producer, and he was quite bored. Cody and Noah each briefly stopped at a hut. Cody stopped at a hut to his southwest, in which there was an old woman. She said, "Oh, my darling. You poor thing. It's a shame you poor youngsters have to do all the fighting. Here. Take this sword. It will help you on your journey." He held onto the sword and equipped it. Although it was slightly more unwieldy than his last sword, his power needed all the help it could get.

Noah stopped at a house where someone in his thirties was standing. "This war is ridiculous," he said, "Here, take this spell book. It's useless to me, but maybe you can find a use for it." He was handed a book of wind spells, for which he was quite grateful. It was lighter, which made it easier for him to focus on casting quickly.

Alejandro and the co-dependent girls attempted to block all entrances to the clearing so that no more reinforcements could show up. Katie and Sadie had both noticeably improved since they joined, but it was not apparent that Alejandro had. In fact, as the difficulty of the battles increased, one could even find the illusion that he was getting worse.

Geoff and Bridgette headed to the southwest, where they found the hut the reporter was in. Bridgette stood in front of it. "Who… who is it?" the man asked from within.

He opened the door. "Oh, it's a Total Drama alumnus! Thank goodness! I thought for sure that all of you had died! The fact that you're alive… it's juicy! And more importantly, aMAAAAAzing! Listen, guys, I don't know how to thank you for protecting me today, but I'm sure I'll come up with something along the way… Ask for Josh!" He closed the door without giving her anything.

DJ stood by Noah, Cody, Gwen, and Courtney, being ready to heal each at a moment's notice. Every single one of them was noticeably improving, although Courtney's bow ran out of arrows. Luckily, she still had her spell book to rely on, but chances were, it wouldn't last long.

Soon, most of the enemy soldiers had been taken out, and only the bored producer remained. Duncan went up to attack him. "Hey, wake up, or I'll take you out," Duncan threatened.

"You don't have the guts," the bored producer said.

"Try me," Duncan said, and then he stabbed the bored producer hard enough to weaken him severely. He had a vulnerary, and so healed himself immediately after giving Duncan an electric shock with his magic.

Noah attacked next. "Well, I suppose perhaps a fight will be mildly exciting," the producer told him. He sent off two harsh gusts of wind that battered the producer. The shock barely left Noah dazed. A third gust blew over to the producer, but missed.

Courtney had _just _enough power to finish off the bored producer. He said to her, "Oh, that's great… a rebellion or something…"

Courtney responded, "Better not fall asleep or this battle will become too easy for me."

"Easy fights are boring," the bored producer responded. Courtney managed to land the blow. He said, falling, "Whatever." The area had been cleared of enemies.

Josh walked out of the hut and ran over and hugged Courtney. "Oh, thank you! Thank you! Thank you!"

"Okay," Courtney said, "Uh, Josh? Josh? You can let go now."

"Oh, right! I'd love to get the scoop on you guys! What are you trying to do?" he asked.

"Well," Duncan answered, "We're trying to save the world from Chris!"

"My, how noble…" Josh said, "Do me a favor, and call me when you do, okay!" Josh said. "Josh, off!" He hurried away.

"That was strange," Courtney said.

"And not very useful," Duncan said.

"Well, just because we couldn't find any here, doesn't mean we should stop looking," Courtney said, "After all, we haven't checked by the river yet."

"You know, Courtney," Gwen said, "I'm beginning to seriously question your skills as a leader."

"Gwen, it doesn't matter what you think," Courtney responded. "This is Courtney's Resistance. If you want to start Gwen's Resistance, that's fine with me. But don't expect a whole lot of defectors from the larger group to the smaller one."

"Well, I guess there is always the power in numbers argument…" Gwen said.

Author's Note: Goodies for this chapter include **alternate versions of the ending dialogue (Didn't visit Josh; Duncan died; Gwen died) **and **Bridgette and DJ's Support (Level C) **(note the last bit of the exchange at the beginning only happens if you take out Noah. At this point, there is no reason not to.)


	7. Blockade Break

_Chapter 6: Blockade Break_

Courtney's Resistance headed from the woods to the river, but ran into a blockade with a police officer on a horse. "I'm sorry, but we have to keep the area blocked," he said.

"Why?" Courtney asked.

"Oh, you know, danger… caution… condemnation…" he rambled.

"Do you even know what you're talking about?" Courtney asked.

"I don't have to explain my actions to you," he said. Several other mounted police officers appeared from around the blockade, "The point is, my troop here is guarding this."

"Guarding it _from what?" _Courtney asked.

"That's not the point!" the Mountie responded, indicating all too clearly he was incredibly confused.

Courtney ran back to talk to her team and said, "I hate to get into a fight with the RCMP. I'd like to think that they'd be on our side here. But we cannot allow them to block our way to the river. Let's just try to break through the blockades as quickly as possible."

Courtney, Gwen, and Noah all had the upper hand here, as they could attack the blockades from several feet away. Katie and Sadie made a vow not to attack any of the officers unless they attacked first. Due to this reasoning, several of them fell. Alejandro, meanwhile, was being battered silly by several of them.

Duncan decided to try to reason with the confused Mountie. "Hey what's going on?" he asked.

"We have to keep this area blocked or else," the confused Mountie began. "Hey, wait a minute! You're Duncan!"

"Uh-oh," Duncan said guiltily.

"Send in reinforcements!" the confused Mountie shouted.

"Oops," Duncan said warily. Three Mounties who appeared to be a higher rank than everyone there came from the northwest. Duncan was highly intimidated by them. Honestly, so was the rest of the team. Geoff and Cody both considered attacking them, and then thought they couldn't possibly win and backed away. Noah and Gwen were wary of attacking them, even though they could without being counterattacked, because they knew that just one hit from them would result in fatality, and exposing themselves to them was not smart.

The only people who stood a fighting chance against them were Alejandro, Katie, and Sadie. And even then, Alejandro's status as human shield was dwindling quickly. Katie would soon surpass him in defensive prowess. The three of them managed to distract and block the reinforcements, while Cody and Geoff did the relatively safe task of breaking down blockades.

The confused Mountie decided to attack Duncan. "Aha! I've fought your kind before," Duncan said.

The confused Mountie briefly forgot their earlier discussion, and asked, "Duncan, is that you?"

"You know it!" Duncan shouted.

"I won't hold back on you," the confused Mountie said, and he attacked Duncan, but missed. Duncan managed to attack him, although it didn't do as much damage as it could have. Courtney then decided to help Duncan out.

She asked the confused Mountie, "Excuse me sir, but would you mind moving?"

He responded, "Sorry but we have to keep this area blocked or else…" He paused. "Something bad will happen," he finished.

"Please, for the good of the world," Courtney begged.

"I'm just doing my job," the confused Mountie responded. Courtney sighed and pulled out her magic book, sending a ray of light at him. She didn't want to fight him, but he was fairly annoying. It seemed that she had no choice. Cody and Geoff, meanwhile had almost finished breaking down the blockades. There was only one left. They decided to head over there. Unfortunately, Cody was caught by the confused Mountie who said to him, "I know we have to keep this area blocked but I don't remember why." He then thrust his lance directly at Cody, who did a somersault to avoid being hit. In turn, Cody landed one last blow.

"But we… must… keep… the… area… blocked…" the confused Mountie said as he fell.

Geoff struck the final blockade down, after which a random officer shouted, "Oh, no! The blockades are broken! Our plan is ruined. Let's get out of here!" The remaining officers all fled. Courtney observed the scene.

She asked Duncan, "What was that about?"

"I don't know," Duncan said, "Don't ask me."

"I certainly hope we made the right choice," Gwen said.

"The fact that you said that means we didn't," Noah responded.

"Not necessarily!" Cody argued.

"Well, that's not important right now. What is important is that we trudge onward," Courtney responded. "To the river! Oh, that's strange…"

"What's strange?" Duncan asked, "What's strange?"

"Who are those people coming over the hill?" Courtney asked.

"It looks like… Chris's Army! Let's scram!" Duncan shouted, as Courtney's Resistance headed for the river, leaving Cody behind.

Cody looked around and asked, "Guys? Guys? Wait up, please!" He ran as fast as he possibly could to catch up but failed.

Noah and Gwen looked at each other. Noah said, "Oh for the love of…" They both turned around and went to get Cody, and fled to the riverside as soon as possible.

**Author's Note: **Goodies available for this chapter include **alternate versions of the ending dialogue (Duncan died; Noah died; Gwen died; Cody or both Gwen and Noah died)**, **Courtney and Alejandro's Support (Level C) **and** Courtney and Bridgette's Support (Level C).**


	8. River Base

Author's Note: A "manakete" is a human-like being who can transform into a dragon at will using a stone.

_Chapter 7: River Base_

Three soldiers were taking a fourth to a man in armor. "Sir," one of them said, "We saw this guy looking for our river base."

"I… Honest! You gotta believe me! I didn't intend to stumble on your river base at all," the captive said, clearly frightened. Quickly, he flashed a charming smile and asked, "Why don't I sing you a song?"

"Oh, well, I love music," the man in the armor said.

"Well, I can't sing without my guitar," he said.

"Very well," the man in armor said, "Put him down, boys, and give him his guitar."

"But sir…" one of them objected.

"Put him down," he ordered again. They obliged, after which he quickly ran away without looking back. The two soldiers looked at each other.

"I can't believe this," the man in the armor said. He was an intern, who could not seem to hold onto his captives, and was considered clumsy for this reason. "Well, send out the manakete."

"But sir, she…" one of the soldiers said.

"I don't care! Send her out anyway!" the intern exclaimed. "And be quick about it."

Running fast, the captive ran into Courtney's Alliance. Courtney saw him. "Trent?" she asked. "Trent!"

"Courtney!" he shouted, "And look who else is here… listen, I think I may have unintentionally gotten Chris's entire army after me! They think I'm a spy or something."

"Chris's Army is _here?" _Courtney asked. "Oh no… I'm so glad we found you when we did."

"I am too, honestly," Trent said. "Power in numbers and all that." Suddenly, a violet dragon appeared from the east. "Ack! A dragon! I didn't take into account this…"

"Wait a minute…" Cody said, "That dragon looks familiar… but I can't put my finger on it…"

The group quickly broke into two groups. One was led by Courtney, and contained Alejandro, Geoff, and Bridgette. Another was led by Duncan, and contained Katie, Sadie, and DJ. Noah attempted to straddle the line between the two groups, sending gusts at anyone who attacked the healers. By this point, Noah had become a target somewhat undesirable for most of the enemies, so he feared them attacking him very little.

Cody stayed behind briefly to talk to Trent, before heading off to the dragon. He said, "So, my rival in love is back."

Trent responded smugly, "Oh, come off it. You let me win."

"That's right I did," Cody said, "But that was before."

Trent bluntly commented, "I seriously don't think Gwen likes you now."

"You'll see," Cody said hopefully. Then he started heading for the dragon alone, which Noah would not have. Cody's swordplay was getting better, but it was still far from perfect, and Cody still needed some improvements in his resilience before he could fight swashes of enemies alone.

Gwen wanted to join Duncan's group, after briefly stopping to talk to Trent as well. "Trent!" she shouted.

"I've missed you, Gwen," he said kindly.

"This battle's getting pretty intense. I never thought that I'd resort to teaming up with Courtney," Gwen said.

"Well now that I'm here, I promise I'll protect you," Trent said. Gwen changed her mind about joining Duncan's group and decided to follow Trent, so they could help Noah make sure Cody didn't get himself killed.

Cody was really close to the dragon, but he was afraid to approach it. He was terrified when the dragon walked towards him until she transformed back into a human. Then he was only mildly freaked out_._ "Cody!" she shouted.

"Ack! Sierra!" he responded in surprise.

"Don't worry, Cody! I'm going to protect you from these bad guys," she said.

Cody was confused. "But… aren't you one of them?" he asked.

"I was," she admitted, "But I'd rather side with Cody against Chris than the other way around."

"I suppose I should consider myself lucky…" Cody said.

Noah, Gwen, and Trent were satisfied when Cody did not in fact get attacked by the dragon, but instead was able to get her to defect. She quickly turned to cinder all of the enemies surrounding her, but decided it would probably be a better idea to save her transformation stone for later use, and didn't attack any disposable enemy without provocation for the rest of the battle.

Duncan's group had pretty much cleared away the entire southeast area, so DJ headed upwards to help Cody, who had gotten fairly battered. Afterwards, the thirteen joined up, and headed for the clumsy intern. Courtney got an attack in after he said, "I wonder if it was my fault that Chris took over the world."

"It probably wasn't," Courtney said truthfully.

"I probably can't even beat you in battle," he said humbly.

"Good analysis there," Courtney said. The truth is, neither "won" because the fight was inconclusive. Taking full advantage of Duncan's small swords, the clumsy intern attacked him.

"You remind me of someone…" Duncan said.

"It's not me you're thinking of," the clumsy intern said, "It's Tyler."

"Oh, yeah," Duncan said, "What have you done with the others?"

"You can find them later once you fight me!" the clumsy intern shouted. The most uneventful battle ensued: Duncan barely did any damage either time he hit, and the clumsy intern didn't even come _close _to striking him.

Sierra decided to try attacking him. "I thought you were on my side," he whined.

"I changed my mind," Sierra said, "I can do that. I'm a girl."

"Very well," the clumsy intern said, "Then I'll show you no mercy." He tried to stab her, but missed by a few centimeters. She burned him so hard that if he attacked Duncan again he would die.

Then, Trent decided to attack him. "You know I'll kill you right?" the clumsy intern said.

"With my luck, you'll have to misaim to get me," Trent said cryptically.

"Glad we're on the same page," the clumsy intern answered. He hit Trent with enough force to leave him with only a small amount of energy. Trent was able to counter, and his blow was enough to kill the clumsy intern. He said as he fell, "Oh no…"

"Okay, let's get out of here!" Courtney shouted, and they all fled back to the Bass Girls' Cabin. Once there, she asked Trent, "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," he answered. "But I'm so lucky you guys got there when you did. I thought I was hamburger for sure."

"No problem," Courtney said, "We were actually looking for all of you."

"All of us?" Trent asked, "Well, I don't think you'll have much by the river… I actually got caught when I was heading for the mountains."

"The mountains?" Courtney asked.

"That's where Harold and Tyler are now, finding sanctuary," Trent said, "That's where I was attempting to go."

"Harold and Tyler?" Courtney asked, "They're safe?"

"Or so I would assume," Trent said, "But I don't know for sure yet. Last I checked they were finding sanctuary in the mountains, but well, I know how well that worked for me."

"Great, this group already has upwards of three dorks. We really need two more?" Duncan asked.

"Duncan, this group already had one dumb jerk, why did we need a second one?" Noah retorted.

"You don't have the right to just jump into conversations whenever you like just to insult me," Duncan said, offended.

"Cough…hypocrite…cough," Noah responded.

"Stop fighting!" Gwen shouted, "More people is more people! We're going to find Harold and Tyler!"

"Gwen's right…ugh…" Courtney said. "We need to. If we want any chance."

"And what about you, Sierra?" Cody asked, "Are you going to stick with us?"

"Only if you want me to, Cody," Sierra said smiling.

"I know you well enough to know that isn't true, but fair enough. We can all benefit from your… secret magical ability to turn into a dragon you never told me about."

"I didn't?" Sierra asked. She grinned. "Whoopsie."

"I'm just glad I didn't have to find out the hard way," Cody said.

Author's Note: Goodies for this chapter include **unit descriptions (Trent; Sierra), death quotes (Trent, Sierra, enemy; Sierra, player), alternate battle dialogue (Attack Sierra with Cody, attack Sierra with someone other than Cody), alternate versions of the ending dialogue (Trent died; didn't get Sierra; Noah, Gwen or Duncan weren't in the party), Courtney and Geoff's Support (Level C) **and **Katie and Sadie's Support (Level B).**


	9. Decoy Confessional

Author's Note: In case it wasn't self-explanatory, a "heal hedge" is a sparkling bush that heals anyone who stands on it.

_Chapter 8: Decoy Confessional_

"Okay," Courtney said, "Guys, if we want to go to the mountains we'll have to pass over here." Courtney looked around. She noticed a dozen or so outhouses standing around. "What?"

"Are the traps set sir?" a soldier asked a masked man.

"_No_! I started at four a.m. to set them up and I _still_ have work to do…" he said impatiently.

"Well, in that case, can I help?" the soldier asked.

"You know what, from now on, _he _is your general," the masked man said, pointing to a bear, "He can speak your language." The man cast an aura of darkness and disappeared to the north.

"What a touchy guy!" Courtney shouted.

"I don't know, I kinda like him," Duncan said familiarly.

"I saw him first," Noah claimed.

"Okay," the soldier said, "You're the general."

"What the…?" Courtney asked in disbelief. "That's a _bear!"_

"So?" the soldier asked.

"How can a _bear _be the general?" Courtney demanded.

"Hey, the boss said he could speak English," the soldier shrugged.

"This fight… is _so _beneath us," Alejandro said.

"You said it," Gwen responded.

Courtney's Resistance attempted to walk right through, completely avoiding the skirmish, but before they could do so, the bear stopped them in their tracks, and slashed Courtney across the face.

"Courtney!" Duncan shouted. Bridgette rushed over to her to heal her wounds.

"Okay, that's it! Bring it on, you stupid fluffball!" Courtney shouted. The bear roared.

"Uhh…" Bridgette said.

"What is it, what?" Courtney asked.

"Well, DJ and I would rather not fight animals," Bridgette said. Then the two of them started riding away.

"Oh, great… our healers take an exodus at the same time. How could this get worse?" Courtney asked.

"Egghead gets a little too chummy with the enemy Gwen wannabe? If you know what I mean?" Duncan asked.

"That's not what I meant and _you know it_!" Noah responded indignantly.

Courtney was angry. "This is no time for childish antics! We're going to have to fight twice as hard as usual. Resistance, go!"

Curiously, Geoff and Trent started whacking some of the outhouses over. While Geoff was able to quickly bring down one of the outhouses with no trouble, Trent hit one and was damaged slightly. Sierra burned one down completely and was not hit. Noah attacked the same one Trent did but didn't get damaged.

Meanwhile, a group of soldiers were going over to attack Duncan, and soon had him completely surrounded. The good news for Duncan was that he had hurt most of them, and soon the caballeros came to his rescue. Alejandro missed a couple of them, as did Katie, but Sadie hit everyone who came her way; this was good because Katie was more effective when she did hit.

Gwen and Courtney found themselves next to each other, fighting off a group of mages—it was easier for Gwen than Courtney to hurt them, albeit Courtney aimed better. While both dealt damage and were completely unfazed by the counterattacks, they both had reason to feel jealous of Noah, who was now so insanely experienced that the rest of the group was falling behind. Katie and Sadie had the seniority right to promotion, but even they were neck and neck with him.

Trent located what he thought was a heal hedge, but it was dark brown. It ended up pricking him repeatedly, so he moved off of it. There was a heal hedge near it, but Trent didn't move to it for a very good reason—the bear was standing on it.

The bear walked over to where Cody was and attacked him, growling. Trent took this opportunity to usurp the heal hedge rather than being part of the action, although he did get to fight off a couple of wayward mercenaries. Panicking, Sierra breathed fire on the bear. The bear was badly injured, but not dead. The fatal blow was delivered by Gwen, which caused the bear some final confusion as he fell.

"Uh-oh," one of the soldiers shouted, "Our general!"

"Ugh… he wasn't your general," Courtney said annoyed, "It was a bear!"

Bridgette and DJ rode back into the action.

"Poor thing," Bridgette said referring to the bear.

"It's about time you got here," Duncan said impatiently.

Bridgette rushed over to heal Cody, while DJ stood by to heal the smaller wounds of the rest of the team. Cody then, with his trusty sword in hand, attacked a group of soldiers, and easily got them in two blows. Everyone was impressed by Cody's vast improvement—even Gwen. Trent was easily jealous, as he actually had some catching up to do.

The final blow of the match was delivered by Geoff, to a young archer who simply refused to retreat. Courtney looked around and said, "I think that's all of them."

"Okay, princess, now tell us what all these weird outhouses are for," Duncan said.

"The confessional… someone must have put something important in the _confessional,"_ Courtney said.

The team searched through the outhouses, until eventually Duncan came across the right one. "Aha!" he shouted. "Here it is!" He walked out, holding a piece of paper.

"It's a note from Harold," Courtney said, reading it. "It says, 'If you are reading this note that means that Tyler and I have either reached sanctuary or gotten captured and/or killed. If you think we reached sanctuary, then come to the… tenth of Cody's stalker?'"

"That's me!" Sierra shouted proudly.

"Courtney, Courtney, Courtney," Alejandro said, "You put our people to shame…"

"Oh… oh, _duh," _Courtney said. "You were right, Trent. They _have _gone up to the mountain."

"Let's get out of here before we get caught with this," Duncan said, "Obviously we weren't supposed to find it."

"Agreed," Courtney said, leading the group away.

Meanwhile, somewhere mysterious, Chris was talking to a tall woman with dirty blonde hair and glasses. "Are you quite sure that the Squealing Monk can be held down?" she asked.

"I'm sure. I sent one of my most competent producers down to make sure of it," Chris said. "He couldn't possibly let that tiny resistance through."

"See, that's what I wanted to talk to you about," she said, "He left the battlefield."

"What?" Chris asked. "He _let them through? _I _knew _having someone smart do my dirty work was a bad idea."

"Then why did you do it again?" she asked him.

"'Cause he never knew any other way," his tall, daunting lackey said.

"You stay out of this, Chef," Chris said. "Well, not to worry. Even if they find the Squealing Monk, it's hard to assume that they'll understand when he tells them about the Fire Emblem…"

"The Fire Emblem?" the woman asked.

"Eh, I'll tell you after I prove the world is still mine," Chris said.

"Do it quickly, Chris," she said, "Because if you lose your power to a bunch of hormonal teenagers then_ no one _will have mercy on you."

She left, as did Chef Hatchet. "Dang," Chris said, "Who knew ruling the world would be so much work? Well, as long as they don't find the Squealing Monk, I'm safe."

Author's Note: Goodies for this chapter include, **alternate versions of the beginning dialogue (one or more of the units is dead),** **alternate versions of the (early part of the) ending dialogue (Duncan is dead; Sierra is dead/not in the party), Courtney and DJ's Support (Level C), Bridgette and DJ's Support (Level B), Bridgette and Geoff's Support (Level C), DJ and Duncan's Support (Level C), Noah and Cody's Support (Level C) **and **Cody and Sierra's Support (Level C).**


	10. Sunny Side

Author's Note: A Berserk staff is an antagonistic staff used to brainwash enemies into fighting their own allies.

_Chapter 9: Sunny Side_

Courtney's Resistance were headed to the mountain, when they noticed some figures on the beach. "Who?" Courtney asked, looking in that general direction. The same man they ran into last time was there, this time talking to a bishop in a cloak.

"You know what you're supposed to do with this. I've told you eighty-five times!" he said.

"Well actually," the bishop responded, "You've only told me eighty-four times, including that one."

"Why must I work with such idiots?" he asked. "Chris needs the Squealing Monk kept away from the others. And if the Resistance catches up to him… look, you know how the Berserk staff works. Now use it."

"I will, sir," the bishop replied.

"Good. Don't make me go back," he said, "I've run enough times for one day." Suddenly, a giant shark appeared, along with two other smaller sharks. The wise guy turned around and shouted, "Shark! Okay, don't panic! Everyone stay here!"

"But where are you going?" asked one of the soldiers.

"To find safety, Sherlock!" he shouted, and ran away.

"Ah, well," the bishop said. "As long as no one tries to _steal _my Berserk staff, I should be fine."

"Did you hear that?" Courtney asked. "We need to go steal the Berserk staff."

"I'm on it," Duncan said, "Don't worry. I'll get it with _no trouble."_

It was a small formation that day, and so Geoff and Alejandro stayed behind. Geoff stayed behind because he felt that Cody was quickly overshadowing him, and that he would be more useful to the team later on. Alejandro stayed behind because he was losing ground to both Katie and Sadie.

Trent, Gwen, Cody, and Sierra formed a line which attacked and sent off any of the soldiers that attacked them. Due to her fragility and the fact that she was not wearing any armor, many of the soldiers went after Gwen. After being wounded severely, she had raised her alertness significantly, and was attempting to hold her own until DJ came to heal her. Sierra had been spending the entire time being overprotective of Cody, which Cody was simultaneously grateful for (because he was getting hurt less) and annoyed by (because he was being able to show off his fighting ability less).

Courtney approached the shark, only to be stopped by a pair of archers. Katie and Sadie helped her take them down, while Noah, who had recently learned how to heal, helped her with a staff given to him by Bridgette.

Duncan was approaching the bishop, but couldn't quite reach him. However, he was close enough that the bishop cast a spell of light on him. Although it hurt, Duncan was not hindered, and, noticing that the bishop was distracted from the Berserk staff, took the chance to steal it away. Then he handed it to Bridgette, who didn't want anything to do with it.

She attempted to hand off the task to Noah, who was overall more pragmatic and willing to engage in such behaviors, but unfortunately, it was too complicated for him to figure out yet. Only one experienced with the staff could use it. DJ didn't want to use it either, so Bridgette eventually did so anyway, and used it on the biggest shark.

The big shark went and attacked one of the smaller sharks as well as a couple of pirates standing nearby, which made Bridgette regret what she had done, and then she promised to not use the Berserk staff ever again and instead to give it to Noah when he was ready. Duncan went to get DJ to heal him, and then headed to the water himself. He could stand in the water without a problem, which was helpful, as then he singlehandedly took out both of the smaller sharks. The big shark silently attacked him.

Panicking for Duncan's safety, Courtney used this opportunity to shine some light onto the shark's face but unfortunately she missed. Gwen used a spell of darkness for the same effect, and this time it did work. The shark's shock was obvious as he fell in the water.

"Oh, my god!" one of the soldiers shouted, "You defeated the shark."

"Yes," Courtney said, "Now don't expect that we're going to go easy on the rest of you."

"No, please!" the soldier said, "This was _all the boss's idea."_

"Yes," Duncan said, "Your boss seems very in control of every situation."

"We're just trying to stop you from finding the Squealing Monk," the soldier said.

"Who?" Courtney asked.

"Oh, you haven't heard of him?" a different soldier asked, "I mean, I don't know who he's talking about either!"

"Right," Duncan said, "Listen, if you're trying to convince us that this guy you talked about doesn't exist, it's not gonna work. We're not idiots."

"That's right!" Katie shouted.

"Well, _most _of us aren't idiots," Duncan said.

"Yeah!" Sadie added, clueless to the implications.

"Okay, okay!" the first soldier shouted, "Our boss headed to the mountains."

"What a coincidence," Duncan said, "We're just heading there ourselves. Thanks, pipsqueak."

"Terms like pipsqueak are uncalled for," Cody said, offended.

"No one asked you, dorkface," Duncan responded.

"_Duncan_..." Sierra scolded.

"Oh, sorry," he said, "I don't want to tick off Dragon Lady."

Meanwhile, Chris talked to the woman with the dirty blonde hair and glasses once again. "Chris, I don't know what to tell you," she said, "The resistance is getting more powerful, and I think they really are on to something this time."

"No," Chris said, "They can't be on to something because they're so young and stupid. Besides, I don't think this is worth worrying about unless they actually _find _the Squealing Monk, or if my secret weapon comes back a corpse."

"It is worrying," the woman said, "But Chris, remember. This isn't just about your control of the world. It's about your _ability _to control the world. This group doesn't seem like it's going to be disbanding any time soon."

"Chill, Ms. Network Executive," Chris said, "Or can I call you by your…"

"_No one _calls me by my first name. _No one!" _she shouted. "Not even the ruler of the world."

"Man," Chris said, "Even when I have ultimate control, you still think you can boss me around."

"Chris, the _world _is not in my control. However, it seems that you aren't understanding me. If you win, nothing's changed. You own the world and keep your fame. But if you lose, even if you live, you will live an exile, only to be booed and heckled by nerds on Saturday nights," the network executive said, "All I'm saying is that maybe you should change up your strategy a little bit."

"I understand that," he said, "And yet… I'll wait for something bad to happen."

"If you do," she warned, "It might be too late."

Author's Note: Goodies for this chapter include **alternate versions of the (first part of the) ending dialogue (Duncan died, Cody/Sierra died, Katie/Sadie died), Alejandro and Bridgette's Support (Level C), DJ and Geoff's Support (Level C), **and **Geoff and Duncan's Support (Level C).**


	11. Up the Hills

_Chapter 10: Up the Hills_

Tyler and Harold sat alone in a hut. "Harold, I don't get why we have to stay up in the mountains anyway," Tyler said.

"I've developed quite a reputation," Harold said, "Not that my skills will prove the reputation wrong or anything."

"But…" Tyler said, "You know that we can't hide forever. Sometime someone will call you on being the Screaming Monk."

"That's the _Squealing _Monk," Harold corrected, "The one with the info, who will squeal."

"Harold," Tyler said, looking out a window, "I think we have company!"

"Idiots!" Harold shouted, looking out and seeing an entire battalion led by the producer who was chased away from the previous two fights by Courtney's Resistance.

"I know you're in here, Squealing Monk, so you might as well give up," he said, "If you come quietly, we won't knock your glasses off."

"Gosh!" Harold shouted, coming out, "You really ought to knock next time." Tyler followed, carrying an axe.

"What? This is your laser targeted defense? A fighter?" the producer said, "Don't make me laugh."

"I'm not laughable!" Tyler shouted, swinging his axe around in the general direction of the producer, who dodged the blade by ducking under it.

"Ha! You'll need better aim than that if you want to beat ME!" he shouted.

"Oh, no! The prognosis for winning does not look good," Harold said. "Unless we suddenly get some reinforcements…"

"Like those guys over there?" Tyler asked, pointing to Courtney's Resistance.

"Harold?" Courtney asked.

"Courtney?" Harold responded.

"Yes, it's me! And I brought Duncan too!" she shouted.

"Great…" Harold muttered, "Anyway, I'm glad we ran into you guys. Listen, can you help us defend ourselves and our hut from the bad guys?"

"Of course," Courtney said, "You can count on us."

"But I will have the last laugh," the producer said, "Because I just sent in some bandits to burn down the hut."

"Uh-oh! There's valuable information in there!" Harold said. "We can't let them burn it down, guys!"

"Now, we better hurry and make it to the hut before those bandits do!" Courtney shouted, "Courtney's Resistance, go!"

This time, Trent and Alejandro stayed behind. Trent's skills were missed, although not to as much of an extent as Geoff's were welcomed. Courtney led Duncan, Katie, and Sadie toward the hut, while Sierra stayed with Geoff trying to guard the point of their entrance from an incessant bunch of archers who not only wanted to kill Gwen but were willing to engage in suicidal warfare to do so. They ultimately failed in killing Gwen, but Bridgette knew that her healing was needed.

Noah and Cody had another agenda, as they both headed for Harold and Tyler. Cody headed for Harold while Noah headed for Tyler. Noah reached Tyler first and greeted, "Hey, Tyler."

Tyler screamed, "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!"

"What the crap," Noah responded flatly.

"Oh…nothing," Tyler said, "I thought you were someone else."

Noah, alluding to the producer, asked, "That swelled head? Please."

"Listen, Noah," Tyler said, "I really want to help you and your little resistance."

"Thanks, Tyler," Noah said.

"Oh, and Harold wants to join too," Tyler added.

"Fine," Noah said, "Whatever."

Harold, like Courtney, was skilled in the department of light magic. He and Cody went to attack a couple of men on horses, who directly attacked Cody. Cody was still too weak to completely kill them all at once, but he wasn't too weak to get them to the point where Harold could do so with ease.

Fed up, the producer went and attacked Courtney, who said, "Get out of our way."

"I refuse," he responded.

"Well," Courtney asked, "What am I going to have to do to get you to move?"

"How about dying?" he suggested.

"Maybe you should be the one dying," Courtney responded. The battle was completely uneventful. Courtney not only missed both times she shot some light at the producer, but didn't take damage when she was attacked by darkness.

They were close enough to the hut that they weren't worried about trying to take out the producer. Noah was the next to attack, and he predicted well that he had quite a boon. He had the opportunity to make three shots, and if he succeeded in doing so, he would kill the producer. "Move," he said simply.

"Make me," the producer responded.

"How mature of you," Noah retorted.

"I know," the producer said, throwing it back in Noah's face.

"I'm sure I couldn't possibly stand up to your powerful dark magic," Noah said sarcastically.

"Indeed," responded the wise guy producer, "Your own head will get in the way when you try to cast a spell."

"At least my brain is big enough to be an obstacle," Noah answered.

"Too bad your spine is too weak to hold it up," was the reply.

Noah's final words before casting his first spell were "Look who's talking, lapdog." Noah, unfortunately, missed his opportunity to make his third shot, and the producer was still standing. Tyler hoped to put an end to this shortly.

"I'm gonna crush you, you little piece of snot that fell out of my nose right now," Tyler taunted, "You're so much of a snot you're a little dried up booger."

"I know you are but what am I?" the producer retorted.

"Oh, a wise guy, eh?" Tyler asked.

"Oh," the producer said condescendingly, "So you can come to the right conclusions." Tyler took a swing with his axe but completely missed. The wise guy producer did not. Bridgette helped to heal the dazed Tyler from his magical injury.

Afraid of counterattacks, the wise guy producer moved to attack Duncan from afar. Duncan said flatteringly, "You know, I kind of like your style."

"Can it," the producer responded impatiently.

"So I should just shut up and let you kill Courtney and the others, is that it?" Duncan asked.

"Absolutely," the wise guy producer answered.

"Not gonna happen," Duncan said, and then he quickly avoided a shot from the darkness.

Harold thought this battle had gone on long enough, and he decided to take matters into his own hands. He asked, "You going to give up yet?"

"Me? Give up?" the wise guy producer asked, "Please. There's no way I'm going to let the Squealing Monk go just like that. You're going to have to hit harder."

"That can be arranged," Harold answered, sending a beam of light in the general direction of the producer, and after being barraged by a spell of darkness, sending out a second one, which was the fatal blow.

"Meh," the wise guy producer said falling, "Lucky shot." Tyler took this opportunity to block the hut's entrance once more.

"Sir?" a random soldier asked, "Sir, you can't have fallen, can you have? Sir?"

"Sorry." Harold responded, "He died."

"Let's get out of here!" the soldier said, along with the rest of the people he was with.

"Harold!" Courtney said, "Good to see you!"

"I never thought I'd hear you say that without any sort of scorn," Harold shrugged. "But I suppose you guys just want the info."

"What info?" Duncan asked.

"Oh, guys, haven't you heard? Harold's the Squeaking Monk," Tyler said.

"That's the _Squealing _Monk, Tyler," Harold corrected, "Because I know how Chris came to rule the world."

"You do?" Courtney asked. "How?"

"Okay," Harold said, "So you know how Chris suddenly became extremely powerful for no reason?"

"Yeah," Courtney said, "We all know that."

"Well, what if I told you there _was _a reason?" Harold asked. "He found an artifact. The artifact was supposed to be off-limits to everyone. Chris found it by mistake. He didn't know what it was at the time, but the artifact is known as the Fire Emblem. It gives stupendous power to anyone who touches it, and now that Chris has found it, the only way to defeat him is to make him lose it somehow."

"How?" Courtney asked.

"Well, that's simple," Harold said, "We'll need to rattle him in order to distract him, and then once he drops it, we'll get him for good!"

"Harold, thank you for the information," Courtney responded, "We'll take this into account for future battles."

"Hey, I just have one question," Duncan said, "How do you know all this?"

"I have connections," Harold said. "Spies, here and there."

"Well, that's a good enough answer for me," Courtney responded, and Courtney's Resistance with its two new members adjourned.

Meanwhile, Chris was talking to Chef Hatchet and the network executive. The network executive said, "Well, I'm sorry, Chris, but it would appear as though your 'secret weapon' died, and the resistance found the Squealing Monk. Looks like you should have been more cautious."

"I told you so!" Chef Hatchet shouted.

"Chef," Chris said, "Settle. Even if they found out about the Fire Emblem and everything, there's no way they can get past you."

"Yeah," Chef Hatchet said, "But if they even get _to _me they've gone too far."

"My god," Chris said, "What if my world reign is ending?"

"Hooray!" Chef Hatchet cheered. Chris glared at him. "I said nothing. What a shame that would be."

Author's Note: Goodies for this chapter include **unit descriptions (Harold; Tyler), death quotes (Harold; Tyler), alternate versions of the (early part) of the ending dialogue (Duncan died; Tyler died), alternate battle dialogue (generic unit [i.e. unused character] fights Wise Guy Producer; Cody talks to Tyler; Noah talks to Harold; Cody talks to Harold), Courtney and Geoff's Support (Level B), Sadie and Trent's Support (Level C), **and ** Duncan and Gwen's Support (Level C). **


	12. Mountain Monster!

_Chapter 11: Mountain Monster!_

Harold led Courtney's Resistance further up the mountain. "Now, Courtney," Harold said, "Don't worry. We'll get you guys to a true sanctuary soon. Suddenly the ground started shaking.

"What was that?" Courtney asked. "A-a-a-avalanche?"

"No," Harold said, "Not an avalanche… Chris's army!"

"Chris's army?" Courtney asked. "I thought you guys said the mountains were a sanctuary!"

"We don't get out much," Harold shrugged. "Who knows what might have changed during that time?"

"You might as well give up, resistance!" Chris shouted.

"Chris!" Courtney said and then she approached him.

"No," he said, "I'd much rather see you fall at the hands of my special general. Perhaps you all remember him." A tall, white and purple creature stood at the center of attention.

"Sas-Sas-Sasquatchanakwa…" Courtney stammered.

"Oh, yeah, I really gotta get out of here," Chris said, and then he dropped a smokescreen and vanished.

"Oh no!" Harold shouted, "Not Sasquatchanakwa! We're doomed! Doomed I tell you!"

Duncan ran up and struck him. "Are you out of your mind, Harold? We can win this thing."

"That beast can easily rip someone to shreds," Harold said, "There's no way we can fight that."

"Actually," Noah said, "Let me talk to him."

"You're a little cocky for such a wimp," Duncan said, "All for letting Poindexter get himself killed?"

"I believe in you, Noah," Tyler said.

"Well at least someone does," Noah responded uneasily. A scattering of soldiers stood on every side of the mountain peak, with Sasquatchanakwa standing near the summit. All fifteen of them needed to fight in this battle, and they quickly broke into three groups of five. The first group contained Courtney, Duncan, Alejandro, Geoff, and Bridgette and headed to the west side of the mountain. The second group contained Sierra, Cody, Gwen, Trent, and DJ, and headed to the east side of the mountain. The third and final group contained Katie, Sadie, Harold, Tyler, and Noah, and decided to charge the center straight on.

The west group was bombarded by some swordfighters and a couple of soldiers. Most of them were attacking Bridgette, which Courtney saw and rectified by giving Bridgette her spare book of light magic, which Bridgette had recently learned how to use. She only used it in self-defense because she spent all of her directed energy trying to keep Geoff from dying to the lances of the soldiers. Courtney and Duncan were also popular targets, but that didn't matter because they were so easy to miss.

The east group decided to have Trent and Cody stand in front, while Gwen worked from behind and DJ healed the wounded. Sierra was kept in the back as a last resort because she was so powerful that if she got her breath on one of the opponents, they would be incinerated shortly after and Trent, Cody, and Gwen would be unable to benefit from the damage.

Noah wanted to go talk to Sasquatchanakwa but he was too far away. He could have chosen to get around ten feet from the yeti, but he did not want to because that would in all likelihood get him killed if Sasquatchanakwa spotted him before he had a chance to talk to him. Tyler and Harold were not unaware of his plight, and each one of them pushed Noah closer to the yeti, hoping that that would allow him to reach Sasquatchanakwa.

Their plan worked and Noah said to Sasquatchanakwa, "Oh, Sassy? Why don't you go get the magic ball? Here, it's all glowing and bright. Follow the light! Yes, that's it, look at the pretty light…it's right there!" Sasquatchanakwa was distracted.

"Oh no!" a random soldier shouted, "The special general has been distracted! We better start fighting twice as hard!"

Their plan didn't work, as each of them attacked Katie and Sadie, the former of whom could now kill most of the enemies in one or two blows with ease, and the latter of whom continually hit when her opponents missed and overall fought faster. A group of archers attacked Trent and missed, attacked Cody and hit, and attacked Gwen and died.

Only a couple of fighters and the distracted Sasquatchanakwa remained. Tyler politely went after the fighters so that Courtney would not be distracted when she reached Sasquatchanakwa. "Nice yeti, good yeti," she said. He roared in response. She sent some light at him. It did not kill him, but it weakened him significantly.

Harold followed suit by attacking with light as well. This time Sasquatchanakwa did fall. He let out a large roar as he fell, but it sounded suspiciously like he was attempting to shout, "NO!"

"You… you killed Sasquatchanakwa," a random soldier ran up the north side of the hill and said, "The overlord's not going to like this. He's not going to like this one bit."

"I couldn't care less what the overlord thinks," Duncan responded, "This is our world and we deserve to be free from tyranny."

"Yeah," Harold said, "For once I agree with him."

"The Ladies of War were right…" the random soldier said.

"Who are the Ladies of War?" Harold asked.

"Oh, you, the Squealing Monk, have never heard of the Ladies of War? They're only the fiercest female warriors in the land. I'd like to tell you where to find them, but I can't. Orders and all," the random soldier said.

"Well, can you tell us where you think they… ahem… aren't?" Courtney asked.

"Well, I don't think I overheard one of them say they were congregating around the Screaming Gophers' cabins. And I certainly don't think that they would meet there. And if you run into a young woman in bulky armor I'm almost certain that you've found the wrong place," the random soldier responded.

"Thank you for telling us where not to look," Courtney responded.

"You're welcome," the random soldier said, climbing down the mountain.

"Well, I guess we know what our next task is," Courtney said, "We need to find the Ladies of War and convince them to join our cause."

"Yeah," Duncan said, "And when that fails we can convince them to die."

"Duncan, I really don't think it will come to that," Courtney said.

"You never know, princess," he said, "You never know."

Meanwhile, Chef Hatchet and the network executive brought Chris a woman. "You'll never guess who we caught snooping around your lair," Chef Hatchet said. "This one was riding around on her little flying horse and spying on you."

"Chris," she said, "You know that I'd never spy on you for evil. You're just so darned irresistible I can't help it."

Chris said, "Blaineley, I've had enough of your two-faced sycophantism. Why can't you be straight with me like M…" The network executive cleared her throat. "Like the network executive? Or be a better sycophant like Chef," Chris complained.

"I'll make it up to you, Chris," Blaineley said, "I promise."

"I'll have to think about that," he responded. "For now, let's just keep an eye on her."

Chef Hatchet and the network executive took her away.

"Sir!" a random soldier ran in to say to Chris, "Courtney's Resistance has defeated Sasquatchanakwa and they are now looking for the Ladies of War!"

"What?" Chris asked, "Well, that's just not going to fly with me. Courtney," he laughed, "You ain't seen nothing yet!"

Author's Note: Goodies for this chapter include **alternate versions of the (first part of the) ending dialogue (Duncan died; Harold died), Courtney and Bridgette's Support (Level B), Courtney and Sierra's Support (Level C), Bridgette and DJ's Support (Level A), Gwen and Cody's Support (Level C), **and **Cody and Sierra's Support (Level B).**


	13. Hurrying Down

Chapter 12: Hurrying Down

Courtney looked to Harold and asked, "Do you think that we've seen the worst of it?"

"I would say so, but experience has taught me that if I say that I'll be proven wrong in a second," Harold said, "So I won't say so."

"Smart move," Chris's voice said. Courtney, along with everyone else in the resistance, looked around.

"Where are you, Chris?" Courtney asked, "Show yourself!"

"I would," Chris said, "If I was anywhere near you guys. Now prepare for the mudslide of a life-time!"

"Oh, no!" Courtney shouted. "We have to hurry!" The mountain started shaking beneath her feet. She, Duncan, and Harold led the other twelve down the mountain. When they reached the half-way point, they ran into a group of soldiers.

"You're too late," the leader said. "You're all going to die."

"What about you guys?" Courtney asked, "If you guys say that the mudslide is going to kill us, it's also going to kill you."

"Oh," the leader said, "You still believe the mudslide ruse? That was a trap to get you guys down here with us." He took out a large bow. "You realize that you guys are going to die here."

"Well, okay," Duncan said, "This is getting ridiculous."

"Trust me. I fought in the wars before any of you trust fund kids were born," he said.

"LEAVE CODY ALONE!" Sierra shouted, grabbing the veteran by the scruff of his neck.

"It's okay… it's okay… I'm sure it wasn't supposed to be personal," Cody said, trying to calm Sierra down.

"Did you just call me a…" Duncan began, threatening the veteran with his blade.

"Duncan, settle," Courtney said, "I assure you that we 'trust fund kids'—and those of us who aren't—will be able to take you."

"We'll see," the veteran said. "I have nearly limitless reinforcements. See how well you do against them."

"Okay, we just need to make sure not to die," Courtney said. "Show these guys what Courtney's Resistance is really made of."

Courtney stood at the center of the action, with DJ, Bridgette, Noah, and Gwen, who had also recently obtained the ability to heal, standing by just in case. Harold was learning, but he had not gotten there yet. He also stood in the middle of the action. Cody, Geoff, Trent, Alejandro, Katie, Sadie, Duncan, Sierra, and Tyler surrounded them, and the difference in combat was becoming clear.

Cody, who had no more than three battles ago been in dire need of protection, was now taking out enemies with absolute ease. Geoff was falling further behind, although he was still very fast, and it was not as if Geoff was a bad performer. Trent's aim improved every day, although every time a swordfighter attacked him, it was not as advantageous as it could have been because they always got two blows in when he only got one.

Sierra was still a formidable foe, although she was starting to get hurt a bit more easily. When it came to the damage she dealt, however, it had never been better. Alejandro had been thoroughly outclassed by Katie and Sadie, who worked as well alone as they did together.

As for Duncan, his fighting power was increasing like mad. He was able to pierce the armor of the armored lancers with far more ease than any of the other rogues he had met could, albeit he still was not nearly as formidable to them as Noah, who had the unfair advantage of using a non-physical weapon, or Sierra. However he had outclassed both Cody and Geoff in this regard, and even seemed almost as good as Courtney using light magic, Gwen and Harold. He was also arguably better than Tyler, who, while stronger, was far less accurate.

After a while, the veteran shouted, "Okay, you guys really think that you can make it out alive? Here are my backup fighters!" About a dozen new soldiers arrived at the scene. They may not have outclassed everyone in the resistance, but they were formidable to Courtney, who seemed to be in a comfortable stasis as far as experience was concerned. It wasn't that she didn't have the will to learn; it was just that she didn't know what else to do.

"Uh-oh," Courtney said, "Everyone, we need to work harder than ever." To make matters worse, the one foe on the battlefield who was dangerous to the magic-users, the veteran himself, ran over and attacked her, from a distance. "Sir, we really think we're onto something," she said.

"That's no excuse," he responded, "I'm going to turn you into a piece of CIT Swiss cheese!"

"Very well," Courtney said, "In that case, I'll have to do the same to you."

The fight did not leave either of them dead, although both of them were wounded badly. Duncan attempted to retaliate. He said, "Aren't you a little old to be an intern?"

"Aren't you a little young to be a soldier?" the veteran asked.

"I'm not a soldier," Duncan corrected, "I'm just a rebel. A rebel with a cause." Unfortunately, he missed when he tried to strike the veteran. The veteran was also too fast for Duncan to attempt to strike again. During this time, the veteran had been healed by a couple of bishops who were standing by.

Harold attacked him next. "You're the… you're the… Squealing Monk!" the veteran shouted.

"Guilty," Harold responded, "Whatcha gonna do about it?"

"Hmm," the veteran said, "Kill you?"

"Hadn't thought of that," Harold answered.

Harold got in one strike, which was not enough to kill the veteran, but it did some damage. The veteran retorted by attacking DJ, who, unlike Bridgette, had not learned how to use light magic yet. "All you youngins shouldn't be fighting the overlord!" he yelled. DJ luckily managed to dodge the first blow, because the second one was shot with such precision he nearly died.

Luckily, before he got another blow in, the mountain began to shake. "I thought you said the mudslide was a ruse!" Courtney shouted.

"I thought it was!" the veteran said.

"Run!" one of the backing soldiers shouted.

Courtney's Resistance and the soldiers all ran down the hill except for the veteran and Courtney. "What are you doing?" Courtney asked, "Come on!"

"My life ends here," he said.

"No," Courtney said, "I can't allow you to die to your own leader. Anyone who kills his own army is a monster." She grabbed his arm and took him out of the line of fire. The mud slid down and buried a couple of random soldiers, but the veteran and Courtney both lived, as did everyone in Courtney's Resistance.

"You… you saved my life," the veteran said. "Thank you."

"Oh, it's no problem," Courtney said, "It was clear you were misinformed of the situation. And that sounded like it was intentional on Chris's part."

"Well, I feel like I have to repay you," the veteran said. "Trust fund girl. You might have a use for this magic tome. It's a Purge tome. You can attack enemies from a long distance with this."

"Thank you," Courtney said.

"Oh, and, piercings!" he shouted.

"Who, me?"Duncan asked.

"Yes," the veteran said, "Here, take this silver sword."

"A silver sword?" Duncan asked, "Awesome."

"Oh, and before you go?" the veteran asked, "There's something I think I need to do for you."

"For me?" Courtney asked.

"Yes," the veteran answered. "Now be patient, and I will imbue you with the experience of the ages." The veteran took Courtney's hand and she waited with her eyes closed. "Open your eyes."

"What did you just do?" Courtney asked.

"You are now more powerful than ever. Powerful enough even to wield the CI Tome," he responded.

"The what?" Courtney asked.

"Only the most powerful light magic in the world," he said. "Anyway, good luck with your endeavors."

"My word…" Courtney said, "I'm more powerful than ever…"

"Don't let it get to your head, princess," Duncan said. "Or should I start calling you Your Royal Majesty?"

"Courtney is fine," Courtney said, "Now… the Ladies of War await our arrival! Come on, let's go!"

The veteran had limped over to where Chris was. "You lied to me," he said, "You said it would only be a ruse."

"Yeah," Chris said, "I knew you'd turn traitor so I tried to have you killed off. Unfortunately, my plan didn't work."

"Why don't you let Blaineley have a go at it?" Chef Hatchet asked.

"Blaineley is slippery," Chris said, "She seems more likely to turn traitor than anyone else in our army."

"Oh, come on, Chris, you can trust me. I promise that I will make everything a living hell for Courtney's little resistance, and you guys won't have to lift a finger," she responded.

"Well, whatever, Blaineley," Chris said, "If it gets to that point, we will count on you."

"Good to know," Blaineley said, "And if I'm a loyal asset to you, will you give me a high ranking position?"

"No," Chris said, "But I won't punish you if you don't betray me."

"Understood, Chris," Blaineley said, "I won't let you down." Blaineley headed off.

"Oh, Chef…" Chris said, "I feel like everything's falling apart."

"It should be fine, Chris," Chef Hatchet responded, "I'll make sure of it."

Author's Note: Goodies for this chapter include **alternate versions of the beginning and ending dialogue (Harold died; Duncan died; Sierra or Cody died; all sword users died), alternate battle dialogue (Veteran Intern dies), Courtney and Alejandro Supports (Level B), Courtney and Duncan Supports (Level C), Katie and Trent Supports (Level C), DJ and Geoff Supports (Level B), DJ and Duncan Supports (Level B), Geoff and Gwen Supports (Level C), Gwen and Trent Supports (Level C), **and **Noah and Cody Supports (Level B). **


	14. Back to the Cabins

_Chapter 13: Back to the Cabins_

Leshawna was pacing back and forth in front of a cabin. She was dressed in bulky armor. She stopped, took a breath and asked, "Have you seen any changes yet?"

"No," a voice responded. It was Eva. "But you never know what could happen."

"Eva," Leshawna said, "Could you go scout?"

"Of course," Eva said. "Those enemy soldiers won't know what hit 'em when I smack 'em down. And my new friend will make sure of it."

She mounted a flying dragon, carrying an axe in her hand. She flew to the east side, where she spotted some soldiers. "Uh-oh. Chris's army."

"Well, would you look what we have here, boss?" a random soldier asked the man he was standing next to. "A woman who thinks she's a man."

"CHAUVINIST PIG!" Eva yelled. She then, with a single swing of her axe, felled the soldier.

"Uh-oh," another soldier shouted. "You deal with her, boss."

"But that's so _hard_," he whined. "Man… I wish I could go back to cleaning. At least then no one noticed that I never did my job."

Courtney's Resistance met with Leshawna by the cabins. "Hey, is that...?" Courtney asked. "Leshawna! Hey, Leshawna!"

"Courtney?" Leshawna asked. "Wow, the whole gang's here! Listen, guys, this area is safe for now, but I just sent Eva over to scout and I thought I heard a man screaming bloody murder so I'm pretty sure she's run into trouble. We should help her out."

"Can't Eva handle the entire army herself?" Courtney asked. "I mean, she's really strong."

"But her weapon is not indestructible, and even she would succumb eventually to an army ganging up on her," Leshawna said.

"Very well," Courtney said, "We'll fight through this mess and then meet with Eva." Leshawna stood by the others. This time, only twelve of them could come out on the battlefield. Alejandro, who had been supremely outclassed, stayed behind. Katie and Sadie also did, because the area they were fighting was fairly small.

Before heading east, Harold briefly stopped to talk to Leshawna. "Leshawna!" he yelled excitedly.

"Harold!" she responded in kind, "How are you babe?"

"Well, I was afraid," Harold replied honestly, "But now that you're here, I know that we'll be unbeatable!"

"Oh, honey, you flatter me too much," Leshawna answered.

"I don't think so," Harold said happily.

"It's true," Leshawna responded humbly.

Cody, Trent, and Gwen tried to fight against a large group of fighters. They continually attacked Trent, because he was the slowest of the three—although he was able to predict that they would attack them and managed to get preemptive strikes—and Gwen was standing behind. Cody decided to help Trent by finishing off a couple of them for him.

Courtney, Duncan, and DJ had another agenda, as they tried to rid the battlefield of three mages who kept attacking Leshawna from far away. Thankfully, Bridgette was nearby to heal her, and so she didn't die. However, it was annoying because she could not use her staff on anyone else who needed it during this time.

Geoff, Harold, and Bridgette stayed behind to help Leshawna, because although she was very strong, her armor was heavy enough that she was significantly slower than the enemies who attacked her. While most of the swordfighters and archers were too weak to do significant damage to her, or even often pierce her armor, they were a bit of a nuisance. Geoff and Harold helped her by finishing several of them off.

Noah, Tyler, and Sierra basically just stood in the center of the action, taking on many of the enemies that came their way, when Tyler started to approach Eva. Noah and Sierra stood behind to take care of wave after wave of borderline suicidal enemy soldiers. Tyler eventually reached Eva, who seemed to be standing still, and only killing the enemies who (stupidly) approached her. He started a conversation, "Hey, it's Eva!"

"What do you want, Tyler?" Eva asked.

Tyler sheepishly responded, "I just…I just thought you might want to join us."

"Do you have hiring powers?" Eva asked suspiciously.

"Well, not officially, no," Tyler admitted.

"I would like to speak to your boss," Eva demanded.

"Right away, ma'am," Tyler responded and then, sadly headed down to where Noah and Sierra were standing, not only sad because he could not get Eva to join but also because Noah and Sierra had taken care of the majority of the enemies around leaving none for him. Courtney's small group headed north, and Courtney was able to meet with Eva, although Duncan had to clear out an archer who was blocking the path first.

Courtney approached Eva. "You wanted to speak to me?" she asked.

"Oh, you have got to be kidding me," Eva said, "You're the boss?"

"I am," Courtney responded proudly.

"Self-elected, I'm sure," Eva said teasingly.

"Actually," Courtney corrected smugly, "Alejandro appointed me…"

"Alejandro?" Eva asked, "Well that would explain the poor decision."

"Eva, what is your problem?" Courtney asked.

"Oh, well I just assumed that the boss would be someone cool," Eva said, "I guess I assumed wrong."

Courtney was exasperated. She said, "Okay, someone 'cool' can talk to you if that makes you happier."

"Believe me, it will," Eva said.

Noah and Gwen both attempted to reach Eva, with the knowledge that Eva found them "cool". Gwen beat Noah there and talked to Eva. "I can understand your aversion," she said, which caused Eva to turn around.

"Hi, Gwen," she said.

"Nice ride," Gwen complimented, "You get him yourself?"

"Well, he's been in my family for generations," Eva said.

"Anyway," Gwen offered, "Do you want to join our resistance?"

"Normally, I couldn't say no to you, Gwen," Eva responded, "But you see, the leader is Courtney after all, and everyone who has been on a team with her knows she is absolutely _insufferable."_

"Yeah, I understand," Gwen said. "We'll ask after the battle."

"Okay," Eva agreed. She still continued to sit, while Courtney's resistance piled on the head of the enemy army.

Courtney was the first to attack him. "What are you doing?" she asked.

"Uh… my job," he answered, "What are you doing?"

"Leading my resistance to victory," Courtney responded.

"Good luck," the leader said. Courtney managed to hit him, but not very hard. He also hit her with his javelin and almost killed her. Duncan picked her up and carried her over his shoulder.

Harold next walked up to attack him. The lazy man shouted, "Squealer!"

"Well you guys talk a big game about how I'm 'ruining' these secrets, but Chris told you of all people?" Harold asked.

"Yes," he responded, unaware of the insult.

"I can't be the only one who finds it a bit odd," Harold said. Harold, unlike Courtney, managed to dodge the javelin, but he didn't do a whole lot of damage to him either.

Noah decided to attack him next, and he did not have enough power to kill him, but was still more powerful than Courtney and Harold. The lazy handyman said, "I'm doing my job, I swear." Noah was put in the same position that Courtney was moments ago, so Tyler picked him up as Duncan did with Courtney.

The handyman decided to attack Duncan, because unlike the three who had previously attacked him, he was not able to counter the move. "You missed a spot," Duncan said.

"I did? Well, that's going to be the only spot I miss today," he responded, "And by that I mean, I'll get you!"

"Yeah. I know," Duncan answered, "I'm not stupid. Unlike you." Duncan was slowed considerably by carrying Courtney, but not so much that he couldn't dodge the javelin.

"Only fighting defensively is getting far too dull," Eva said, "I think I'll go help out with the fight." She flew at the lazy handyman, carrying her deadly axe.

"No please," he said, "Have mercy. I be just a humble handyman!"

"Nice try," Eva said, "Your accent won't fool anyone; we all know you're from Saskatchewan and have a high position in Chris's army."

"Very good," he responded, "Except for one thing."

"What?" Eva asked.

"I'm from Manitoba," he responded.

"Well then that means I have to go easy on you right?" Eva asked, "Didn't think so." She would have landed the final blow if she had aimed it just so. She didn't do it quite right, but she still hit him well enough to damage him.

Leshawna decided to try to get the final blow. It would require her to hit with precision, with her own javelin. She had a small chance of doing so. She decided to try negotiation first. "Would you mind letting us pass?" she asked.

"I actually would," he responded.

"Why?" Leshawna asked.

"Because you suck," was his reply.

"I'm not the one stuck a janitor," she responded.

"Okay, that was fair critique," he said, "But you're still going down!" She hit him with her javelin one time, and that caused him to fall. "Well at least I don't have to work anymore," he said as he fell.

Only one swordfighter remained, standing right next to Sierra. Sierra burned him up, and the area was cleared.

"Are you all right?" Leshawna asked.

"Of course," Courtney answered, "We're Courtney's Resistance. We've been doing this for quite some time.

"We're all right too," Leshawna said. "We're the Ladies of War."

"Oh, you are?" Courtney asked, "I was wondering about that. Well, I'm glad to have you allied with me, Leshawna."

"Where is Eva?" Leshawna asked.

"Looking for someone?" Gwen asked, smiling.

"Courtney, I…" Eva began, "I'm sorry for being so rude to you earlier. Even if Gwen would defend me being hostile towards you. Now, I want to be part of your party. But I'll understand completely if you don't want me."

"No, Eva," Courtney said, "I'm very glad to have you here."

"I'm glad I could get her to come…" Gwen said, "I was kind of scared I wouldn't be…"

"Well, as long as she wasn't fighting against us, I think we'd be safe," Courtney responded.

"So, Courtney," Leshawna said, "You probably want to know where Chris went."

"I do," Courtney responded, "Can you tell us?"

"He's at the network studio," Eva said, "We overheard the lazy handyman telling some of his underlings."

"Well, then there's only one thing to do… we should go there," Courtney said.

"I don't know if that's the best idea yet," Leshawna said. "Notably, a lot of _our _first team is still missing."

"Can't have that," Gwen said.

"Yeah, because we're just better," Noah blurted out, which caused Courtney, Bridgette, DJ, Geoff, Duncan, Harold, Katie, Sadie, and Tyler but notably NOT Eva to look at him in a reprimanding way. "What? I'm just stating the facts."

"As abrasive as his wording was, he kind of has a point," Cody said, "I mean, we really need some people with experience if we're going to fight Chris."

"That's okay," Courtney said, "It's better to wait and get it right than hurry and fail."

Meanwhile, Chris, Chef Hatchet, and the network executive were milling. Chris said, "Okay, when I took over the world, I expected it to be more stable."

"You shouldn't fret, Chris," Chef Hatchet said, "We did just send Blaineley out after all."

"I just hope she isn't all talk," Chris said, "I couldn't stand it if we lost."

"Neither could I, Chris," the network executive said. "And that's why if Blaineley fails, and when Chef does…"

"Hey!" Chef Hatchet shouted, offended.

"…I'm going to help you," she finished.

"Help me?" Chris asked. "I don't need help."

"You don't. Right," the network executive said. "I'll see you later, Chris, and by the way, I won't help you even when you're within an inch of your life…"

"Wait Mo… Ms. Network Executive," Chris said, "I will accept your offer."

"Smart move, Chris," she responded.

"Man, those executives have a way with me, I guess," Chris said.

Author's Note: Goodies for this chapter include **unit descriptions (Leshawna; Eva), death quotes (Leshawna; Eva; Duncan, late), alternate versions of the ending dialogue (Noah retrieved Eva, Leshawna died, didn't get Eva, Gwen/Noah/Cody died), alternate battle dialogue (Noah talks to Eva), Katie and Sadie's Support (Level A), Bridgette and Geoff's Support (Level B), Sadie and Trent's Support (Level B), Cody and Trent's Support (Level C), **and** Cody and Harold's Support (Level C).**


	15. Paparazzi!

_Chapter 14: Paparazzi_

Courtney's Resistance was planning their next move inside the Screaming Gopher girls' cabin. "Where do you suppose the rest of our ex-opponents might be?" Courtney asked.

"I can't say," Leshawna responded, "I think I heard something about them going to Boney Island…"

"Boney Island?" Courtney asked, "The cursed place?"

"Yes," Harold answered, "There's a legend of there being a ghost there who has enough power to nullify the effects of any and all attacks except for one light tome that's so advanced that no monk in history has ever been able to wield it."

"Wait, is that the CI Tome that that soldier on the mountain was talking about?" Courtney asked, "Why would anyone deliberately seek out that ghost?"

"Legend has it that only one who could wield the CI Tome could save the world from a tyrant with the Fire Emblem," Harold said, "If someone can defeat the ghost they can also beat the Fire Emblem itself."

"Okay," Courtney said, "But it sounds so… dangerous…"

"It is," Harold responded, "But we have to take that risk if we want to see those people again." Then it became quiet.

"Did you guys hear that?" Courtney asked. "It sounded like feathers and hooves."

"Feathers… and hooves? That's characteristic of a Pegasus knight," Harold said, "Do we have one outside? Maybe she's a long lost ally. I'll go check."

"No!" Courtney shouted, "Harold, it's too dangerous. If she's an enemy, you are the _last _person in this army who should consider attacking her, except DJ. Let Duncan take care of it."

"Gosh," Harold said, "Fine…"

Duncan wandered out and saw a woman on a flying horse surrounded by about four dozen soldiers of varying vocations. "Yep, guys, it's definitely an enemy," Duncan reported back. "It's Blaineley."

"Blaineley?" Courtney asked, "What's _she _doing here?"

"Well, whatever it is, I'm sure she's up to no good," Duncan responded, "And we should take her down."

"Maybe we should try negotiating first," Courtney offered. Then Courtney's Resistance exited the cabins. She ran up to Blaineley and asked, "What are you doing?"

"Well, we're trying to see the mighty Courtney's Resistance when they're unprepared. We're taping this battle, you know. When it's on TV, you will become a laughing stock, and more importantly, you'll all be dead! Josh, you're going to speak about that juicily, aren't you?" Blaineley announced.

"What?" Josh asked, "Celebrity news is one thing but _murder?"_

"It's not murder, Josh; this is a war," Blaineley said, "If we kill them we're just fighting for our side."

"Well, I will have nothing to do with it," Josh responded.

"You will, and you will like it," Blaineley said, threatening to aim a spear at Josh.

"Oh, yes, yes, of course, madam," Josh responded, and then he headed to the southwest, where he was around Courtney's Resistance. "Did somebody take a catty pill or something? MEOW."

This battle was very large, so all of them were in the battle. Additionally, Harold and Tyler had both acquired new skills. Harold could now join Noah and Gwen in being able to heal wounds, and Tyler was now able to shoot arrows. Or rather, he knew how to work a bow, but the arrows seldom if ever hit the target he wanted. Even when they did, they did a negligible amount of damage. He preferred to use axes, even if he was even _more _inaccurate with them.

Courtney, meanwhile, had an agenda of her own. She walked over to Josh, and called out, "Josh!"

"Oh, Courtney," Josh responded, "Great to see you again, honey. You know how I said I'd help you out?"

"Yeah?" Courtney asked.

"Well, now's the time," Josh answered, "I'm technically supposed to side with Blaineley, but let's you and me face it. That lady's a bizzatch."

"I couldn't agree more," Courtney responded, "Thank you for your help."

"Don't mention it," Josh said.

Trent and Sierra worked closely with Gwen and Cody to help take down a half-dozen horsemen. One of them attacked Gwen and almost killed her, but she was able to take him down. Trent picked up Gwen over his shoulder and carried her to Bridgette. Cody would have liked to, but he was too small. Slightly frustrated, he headed over to a building that had a closed door and leaned against it.

"Phew," he said, "There's a lot of enemies out here!"

"Hi!" a familiar voice shouted.

Cody screamed in panic, and then turned to see that it was only Ezekiel carrying a lance that was longer than he was. "Where'd you come from?"

"The house behind you, eh?" Ezekiel responded.

"But it was locked…" Cody said, confused.

"I know," Ezekiel responded, grinning, "I climbed out the window 'cause it's more heroic."

"Whatever," Cody responded, "Just don't touch anything."

Ezekiel, ever disobedient, walked up to an archer and attacked him. He did a negligible amount of damage, but he was glad he hit at all. The archer planned to counter Ezekiel as soon as he could move to an appropriate distance, but before he had the chance, Eva picked him up and flew out of the archer's reach.

Alejandro, Katie, and Sadie blocked an area where more soldiers in heavy armor were appearing, although Alejandro had to move out of there very shortly, because although they preferred to attack Katie and Sadie, there were only so many that could, and the one who did not was wielding a lance _designed_ to easily take down mounted soldiers, and was fast enough to inflict two blows on him. He rushed over to Bridgette who healed him completely.

Josh, who was wielding a staff that could heal from afar, helped Katie with her wounds, much to Courtney's gratitude.

Geoff and Duncan were trying to fight off a wave of mages, but most of them were too fast and there were too many of them. Gwen, Harold, and Noah stood by to either help the boys fight off the mages or heal them when they finished. However, DJ was already around for the purpose of healing, so they took on the job of the former more than the latter.

Leshawna was also being attacked by a lot of people. Notably, several archers who couldn't quite reach Eva were futilely shooting dull arrows at Leshawna's armor. Leshawna was getting tired of this so she took Ezekiel from Eva, plopped him on the ground, and allowed Eva to go up to one of the archers. This was good because she was able to kill most of them in one blow, but bad because if they attacked her she would get injured highly.

However, Tyler was standing by, and managed to hit and kill one of the archers. The other archer, meanwhile, had another plan. He plotted to attack Ezekiel. He shot Ezekiel with two consecutive arrows, but was luckily not strong enough to kill him. And of course, Josh came to Ezekiel's rescue.

Soon, only Blaineley was around, and Courtney decided that it would be a better idea to just leave. However, Blaineley was not prepared to let her go. She took her spear and readied it at Courtney. "What do you want?" the cornered Courtney asked.

"Oh, what else would I want?" Blaineley asked, "To make your resistance look as silly as possible."

"This is no time to be silly!" Courtney exclaimed.

"You have no idea how showbiz works, Courtney," Blaineley said, hitting Courtney closely with her spear. Courtney was injured. Bridgette put a stop to that swiftly.

This angered Geoff. Geoff walked up to Blaineley and attacked her, although he was not strong enough to kill her. "Blaineley…" he muttered angrily.

"You?" Blaineley asked, "I thought I was fighting more interesting people."

"Yeah, well you thought wrong," Geoff responded.

"This is almost too easy," she said. He succeeded in weakening her, although she seemed to have the ability to heal herself after the blow. She attacked Duncan from afar with her spear.

"No," Duncan said simply, "We don't need cameras right now."

"Come on," Blaineley asked, "Isn't your resistance a dysfunctional mess?"

"None of your business," Duncan defended, "And I'm sure no more so than your silly show."

Blaineley missed, thankfully, but Duncan and Courtney agreed that getting out quickly was the best idea. They led the rest of the resistance away from the cabins.

"Hopefully, she'll just leave," Courtney said.

"Wait, Courtney," a voice called.

"Oh, no, it's her," Courtney griped. "What do we do?"

"Wait, hold on," Blaineley said, "You showed yourselves to be very impressive. Could it be… you're the one?"

"The one?" Courtney asked.

"The one who can wield the CI Tome…" Blaineley said. "If so, you can beat the ghost of the island, and in doing so, beat Chris."

"So what does that mean?" Courtney asked, "You're going to execute me?"

"If you truly are the one, it wouldn't be right of me to deprive Chris of the opportunity to fight you at full power," Blaineley said, "Here. I have the CI Tome. You take it."

"You're just… giving it to me?" Courtney asked.

"Yes," Blaineley said, "I can't use it. But I think you can."

"Thank you, Blaineley," Courtney responded.

"Don't thank me," Blaineley said, "Or I'll change my mind."

"Okay," Courtney said, "Then in that case, I'll see you again someday."

"Maybe," Blaineley responded, "Maybe not."

"Josh," Courtney said, when she ran into the reporter again. "Thanks for helping us today."

"Whatever. You guys deserved it," Josh said, "Now I have to go back and hide. No offense to you guys but this war is getting intense!"

"The CI Tome," Courtney said.

"Now we have no reason not to go to Boney Island," Harold said, "Maybe defeat the ghost and show that the Fire Emblem will not make Chris invincible after all."

"Okay," Courtney said, "Here we go."

Meanwhile, Blaineley flew back to Chris, Chef Hatchet, and the Network Executive's location. "Hey, guys," she said.

"So, Blaineley," Chris said, "I assume that means a victory."

"Not exactly," Blaineley said, "But I did find something interesting."

"What?" Chris asked.

"I think Courtney is the one to wield the CI Tome…" Blaineley answered.

"What?" Chris asked, "No!"

"Chris, it would be advised that you remain in hiding," the network executive told him.

"But come on! A challenge might make things harder but it will also make it better," Chris said. "Come and get me, Courtney. If you are the one, I know you. You'll just get cocky and then think you can challenge me without training. Then, I'll beat you and the world will still be mine."

"I thought you'd see the things the way I did," Blaineley said. "Well, I'll be seeing you, Chris."

"Oh, Courtney," Chris said, when he was left alone, "You and I are not so different. You'll soon see."

Author's Note: Goodies for this chapter include **unit descriptions (Ezekiel), death quotes (Ezekiel), alternate battle dialogue (Tyler triggers Ezekiel; Ezekiel fights Blaineley; someone else fights Blaineley; Blaineley dies), alternate versions of the beginning and ending dialogue (Leshawna died; Harold died; Duncan died; Blaineley died), Courtney and Sierra's Support (Level B), Alejandro and Bridgette's Support (Level B), Katie and Trent's Support (Level B), Geoff and Duncan's Support (Level B), Duncan and Gwen's Support (Level B), Gwen and Trent's Support (Level B), Cody and Sierra's Support (Level A), **and **Harold and Leshawna's Support (Level C)**


	16. Boney Island

_Chapter 15: Boney Island_

Courtney's Resistance paddled across to Boney Island, where it was very foggy. "Here we are," Courtney said, "Boney Island."

"You sure?" Duncan asked, "I could have sworn it was creepier than this."

"Creepier than what?" Courtney asked, "I can barely see the island."

"Oh," Duncan said, "I don't have a problem seeing it. I can see that there are three figures approaching."

"Three figures!" Courtney exclaimed, "Be on your guard, everyone." Everyone prepared for battle. The three figures who approached seemed to be a muscular man holding a large sword, a tall and powerful looking archer, and another girl on a flying horse. Upon closer inspection, they were revealed to be Justin, Heather, and Lindsay. "Oh, it's just you guys!" Courtney said, "I was afraid we were being attacked."

"You are," Justin responded, "Quick, get behind us!"

"Don't you worry about a thing," Heather said, "We'll take care of the fighting of these guys. Courtney, is that the CI Tome?"

"Yes it is," Courtney responded.

"Ugh, I am _so _jealous of you," Heather said, "But hey, I guess you're intended to fight the ghost. He's at the center of the cave over there, that we can barely see."

"We insist on helping you fight this battle," Justin said.

"Like, I'll help too," Lindsay said.

In a hut on the northeast side of an Island, two young people stayed. "I hear there's an evil ghost, out there," the boy said, "Why did we pick to go to Boney Island for our reunion?"

"Because Boney Island has memories for me," the girl said, "It was here that I… oh, it was _soo _funny."

"But, Beth," the boy said, "With all of these tales of the ghost, I don't think that it will be funny anymore."

"Oh, Brady," Beth said, "Now I remember why I'm dating you."

"Why?" Brady asked.

"Because you're hot," Beth answered. "Anyway, I'm gonna go see what's up."

"No, Beth, it's too dangerous," Brady said.

"It's okay," Beth answered, "I am an archer now. I can do it."

"Beth! Get back here!" Brady shouted, and then he ran after her, only to become immediately captured by a random mercenary working for Chris.

"Oh, you're keeping Brady safe," Beth said obliviously, "Thank you. Now, let the battle begin!" As it was foggy out, Duncan held the lead most of the time. He could see farther than most of the people in the group did. However, Justin held a torch which he could use to see farther as well.

As far as the strategic planning went, Harold had no idea how to proceed, and he and the others who had been selected for this mission, a group of nine: Noah, Cody, Gwen, Bridgette, DJ, Sierra, Alejandro, Tyler, and Eva, joined Courtney, Duncan, and the new allies in trying to avoid getting caught alone in an ambush. Before going their separate ways, however, Tyler stopped to talk to Lindsay, Alejandro stopped to talk to Heather, and Eva stopped to talk to Justin.

Tyler and Lindsay's reunion was sweet. "LINDSAY!" Tyler shouted.

"Like, who are you?" Lindsay asked.

"I'm Tyler," was his slightly hurt reply.

"Oh, right, Tyler," Lindsay said, "My hot boyfriend."

"Glad you remember me now, and that you remember me being hot," Tyler said proudly.

"You are," Lindsay responded sweetly.

"You're hotter!" Tyler responded sickeningly sweetly.

Alejandro and Heather's reunion was bittersweet. "Hello, my sweet," Alejandro said charmingly.

"You still like me?" Heather asked incredulously.

"What's not to like?" Alejandro responded, smitten.

"I betrayed you," Heather answered.

"No," Alejandro corrected, "You made me love you more."

"Well don't mistake this for love anymore," Heather said, "Leave."

"Touchy," Alejandro said shrugging.

Eva and Justin's reunion was bitter. "Perfect," Eva said, "Justin's here."

"I know," Justin said, "If looks could kill…"

"Then you could kill everyone," she said, "But they don't so you gotta use that sword."

Annoyed, Justin said, "I might as well use it to kill your little dragon."

"Don't you dare!" Eva warned. Thankfully, soon afterwards those two were separated.

Soon after the battle began, a middle-aged woman appeared from the south. "Now, I'm sure this is where he went… where could he be?" she asked.

"Was that my…?" DJ asked. He rode his horse south to greet the woman. "Momma!" he shouted excitedly when he met with her.

"DJ!" she shouted, "You know what they say, power in numbers. This battle looks extremely difficult. Good thing I brought my Momma Staff."

"Thanks, Momma," DJ said. He was right to thank her, as the Momma Staff was more powerful than any other healing staff that Bridgette had ever wielded (let alone DJ himself or those in the army who had learned how to use staves after magic books). If everything looks hopeless, the Momma Staff can quickly heal everyone fighting for the same cause as the wielder.

Lindsay scouted off to the east, while Eva scouted to the west, notifying their allies whenever they ran into an enemy. By complete accident, Lindsay ran into Beth, who attacked her. "Umm, die, Pegasus knight!" Beth shouted.

"Beth? I thought we were, like, friends?" Lindsay said, hurt and confused. Beth shot an arrow directly at her which would have easily taken her down if it hit. Thankfully for both parties involved, it didn't.

Lindsay tried to get an explanation for Beth's unwarranted attack. "Beth?" she asked.

"Lindsay?" Beth asked, "Oh my gosh, sorry! I almost thought you were an enemy!"

"It's okay, Beth," Lindsay said, "Now come with us. We have a Renaissance or something."

"A resistance?" Beth asked.

"Like, yeah," Lindsay responded.

"I'm your girl," Beth said happily. Of course, her happiness ended shortly when several mercenaries surrounded her and practically killed her. Luckily, Harold, Noah, and Gwen were all nearby to help get rid of the mercenaries and heal Beth's wounds.

Heather was meanwhile having a similar problem, as all of the knights seemed to be bypassing DJ and Bridgette to attack her. Courtney and Justin could not condone such behavior, and Duncan decided to just let them be because they were heavily armored. Duncan opted instead to take care of some bishops who were annoying the crap out of Tyler, who looked horribly battered by the ordeals but nonetheless seemed to be fighting just as hard as ever. After a few more battles, the sky cleared.

"Huh?" Courtney asked, "The fog is gone?"

"Gh-gh-ghost!" Duncan shrieked and then jumped into Courtney's arms, causing them to both fall over.

"Duncan!" Courtney said indignantly, brushing herself off, "That's no way to greet our opponent. You must be the evil ghost of the island."

"I am!" the ghost hissed, "Approach me…" Courtney did. "Welcome to my lair," the ghost said. "Now have at it."

"I will," Courtney said. She pulled out her CI Tome and could attack the ghost.

The ghost laughed evilly, and then said, "I will eat your soul."

"Good luck with that," Courtney said, "I have something that will prove you wrong." She shined the light at him, although she was not fast or strong enough to do it twice at once. The ghost sent a tornado at Courtney, which hurt her significantly.

Bridgette stood by to heal her. The ghost decided to counter by attacking Duncan from a distance. "Ghosts are real?" Duncan shouted, both scared and confused.

"Believe it, Duncan," the ghost said, which freaked him out more.

"How do you know my name?" Duncan asked, agitated.

"I have my sources," the ghost answered. The tornado was shot out again, and Duncan narrowly avoided it, which is good, because it would have killed him. Courtney tried to attack the ghost again, which worked, but then he decided to attack Alejandro from a distance, which was even worse, because even though he could not kill him in one hit, he could quickly send out two which would kill him if they both hit.

"You and I come from the same father," the ghost said.

"I disagree," Alejandro said, "You are too old to be my brother."

"I meant our father down below," the ghost responded.

"What a pittance," Alejandro said, "I'm afraid I betray you."

"Good luck getting a blow in," the ghost said. Two tornadoes headed for him, but he managed to avoid the second one. Bridgette helped him feel better. DJ then stood by Courtney.

Courtney attacked the ghost and it looked like he was about to fade. It was not prevented from attacking Justin however. "You wouldn't hurt someone as handsome as me, right?" Justin asked.

"…I'm straight," replied the ghost.

"Hmm…" Justin contemplated, "That doesn't stop most people."

"Well, I'm not a person," the evil ghost said, "I'm a ghost."

"Or sharks or bears or harsh winds…" Justin listed.

"Shut it," demanded the ghost.

"Whatever," Justin said. Happily, Justin managed to dodge both tornadoes that the ghost sent out. Courtney landed the final blow against the evil ghost.

"No… not the CI Tome! I thought it was just… a rumor…" he said, as he faded into nothingness. Courtney collapsed after the battle.

"Courtney, are you okay?" Duncan ran up and asked, checking her for damage.

"I'm… I'm fine," Courtney said. "Don't worry about me."

"That was dangerous," Duncan said, "I'm just glad we made it through that alive."

"More than just alive," Heather said, "We can now beat Chris."

"Well, we shouldn't assume that he will be as easy as this fight," Harold said.

"You don't get to say the fight was easy," Courtney said, "You didn't fight it. _I _did."

"But, nonetheless, I suppose now would be as good a time as any to head for Chris," Harold said.

"Yeah," Justin said, "Now that we're here to lend you our strength!"

"Agreed," Heather said, "You really needed me on your team."

"I'm here too," Lindsay said, looking cute.

"And Beth?" Courtney asked, "Will you be joining us permanently as well?"

"Umm… I'm gonna have to ask Brady," Beth said.

"Beth!" Brady called out, "You might want to give me a little help first!"

"Oh my gosh! Brady's in trouble!" Beth said.

"Don't worry, I'll save him," Courtney said. She took out the CI Tome and sent its beam of light directly at the head of the man who had captured Brady. The soldier died and Brady was released. "Beth," Brady said, "I think that this life is too dangerous for me. It might be good for supermodels… but not for regular models."

"But Brady," Beth said, "I insist on fighting this war."

"Okay, Beth," Brady said, "I'll wait for you."

"Oh, great," Beth said, "Now I have to wait for you too… I mean… I'll do whatever you tell me to, Courtney!"

"Now, let's get Chris," Heather said.

The network executive, Chef Hatchet, and Chris were meeting at their normal location. "I have some bad news," said the network executive, "The ghost was terminated."

"The evil ghost of Boney Island?" Chris asked.

"No," the network executive said, "The philanthropic ghost of Nanaimo! What do you think?"

"Umm…" Chris said, "Okay. So, Courtney's beaten the ghost. Well, that doesn't mean she'll be able to beat me."

"And it won't get to that point," Chef Hatchet said, "I'll be sure to block the way."

"Not yet, Chef," Chris said, "I've sent out my most loyal producer to take them down. I know that he won't lose as easily as those dumb interns and disloyal producers I've sent before."

"Man, Chris, why won't you let me fight?" Chef Hatchet asked, "Do you hate me?"

"Just the opposite, Chef," Chris said, "I don't want to have you killed unless there's no other way."

"Man, Chris," Chef Hatchet said, "You do have a way with words. Okay, I'll stand down. For now."

Chris said, once the others had left, "Yeah, Courtney, you better hurry… or else… I'll be so powerful that you can't do anything about it…" He laughed.

Author's Note: Goodies for this chapter include **unit descriptions (Heather; Justin; Lindsay; Beth), death quotes (Heather; Justin; Lindsay; Beth, unit; Beth, enemy), alternate versions of the beginning/ending dialogue (Duncan died; Heather died; Justin and/or Lindsay died; Beth died/didn't get Beth; Harold died), alternate battle dialogue (Justin fights Beth; Heather fights Beth; Courtney fights Beth; Noah/Cody/Sierra/Harold fights Beth; someone else fights Beth; Ezekiel fights Evil Ghost; Heather fights Evil Ghost; Lindsay fights Evil Ghost; Beth fights Evil Ghost; someone else fights Evil Ghost), Courtney and DJ's Support (Level B), Bridgette and Leshawna's Support (Level C), Gwen and Leshawna's Support (Level C), Noah and Eva's Support (Level C), Cody and Trent's Support (Level B), Cody and Harold's Support (Level B), **and **Tyler and Ezekiel's Support (Level C)**


	17. Around the Bend

_Chapter 16: Around the Bend_

Courtney's Resistance was just leaving Boney Island, when Duncan asked, "Do you think that we can make it to the other side safely?"

"Of course," Courtney said, "Why wouldn't we be able to?"

"I don't know," Duncan said, "The fog is back, and… what do I see?"

"You see only me," a voice said, "And my army of ballisticians."

"What's a ball-o-pigeons?" Lindsay asked.

"Get down, you idiot," Eva said, blocking Lindsay. "It's an archer! One that can attack from far, far away."

"I wouldn't recommend that either of you ladies join our battle today," Harold said, "After all, the ballistae are dangerous to flyers."

"Well," Eva said, "I can't guarantee that you guys will do well without me, but I trust Courtney's judgment."

Courtney judged that she would take only thirteen with her. The thirteen she picked were Duncan, Harold, Heather, Cody, Noah, Gwen, DJ, Bridgette, Sierra, Trent, Tyler, Justin, and Eva. Lindsay was held back because she was in too much danger, but Courtney recognized that Eva had a point. The fog was not on the part of the lake edge where the battle took place.

Cody worked with Sierra, Gwen, and Trent once again trying to attack the ballisticians as quickly as possible. There was one sage working with the army, using an attack sending a meteor towards the army. The mage tried to attack Duncan but missed, Noah but didn't do any damage, and Gwen but missed (not that it would have mattered, since he wouldn't have done any damage).

Tyler, Noah, and Harold meanwhile attempted to bring the sage to justice. Tyler had been equipped with an axe that was really strong and he would have easily been able to kill the sage: that is, if he had made both of his hits. But he missed the first time, so the last bit of the kill was given to Harold instead.

Heather took up one of the ballistae that the previous archer had absconded from. She used it to attack the leader from a distance. "You need to leave," she said.

"It's a pity, Heather, that you've abandoned your ways," he responded, "Chris even considered making you his heir."

Heather responded, "An heir to Chris? I'd rather be a cold dead corpse."

"That can be arranged," he said. Heather managed to do a huge amount of damage to him, but then the ballista she was sitting on fell apart.

A group of strong swordfighters went to attack Courtney and Duncan. Many of them missed, but there was one who brought Courtney a critical amount of pain. Duncan decided to get back at that one, stabbing him mercilessly.

Bridgette and DJ stood close behind to keep Courtney from being annihilated. They were also ostensibly protecting Duncan, but everyone knew that Duncan dodged over ninety percent of the attacks that were thrown at him.

Eva followed soon after the ballisticians were eliminated from the battlefield, thinking that it was entirely safe from dangerous archers. She was half right. Most of the specialized archers on the battlefield were dead, but there were quite a few warriors with secondary bow skills—who had not completely disowned them like Tyler did. One of them included the leader, who attacked Eva thusly.

"You of all people should be aware Chris is evil," Eva said, noting that the leader was a producer who worked for Chris, "What is wrong with you?"

"Eva, you were always my favorite," he said fondly, "It's really a shame that you had to sit out."

Eva suddenly narrowed her eyes, and then began a tirade, "You think I don't know that you guys just liked me because I was a ticking time bomb? An endless source of drama? You think that my anger issues are worthy of ridicule! Well, I've decided I'm not going to take it anymore."

"Have I stepped on your toes?" the producer asked.

"No," Eva said, "That would hurt ME." As threatening as she was, she could not immediately get a counterattack in. However, the arrow missed her entirely.

Trent was attacked by several of the other warriors. One of them had an axe that was so powerful it could kill him if it aimed just right. Luckily, Trent managed to escape that attack, but two less powerful attacks hit him. Gwen healed his wounds, and then sent dark magic at the warrior who nearly killed him. She used the most powerful tome that she had. It managed to get rid of the warrior.

To deal the remaining blow to the producer, Harold appeared using a powerful light tome. He shouted, "Gosh! You guys really have some nerve!"

"Our leader is charismatic and evil," the producer said, shrugging, "What more could the youth want?"

"No one in history chose the charismatic leaders BECAUSE they were evil," Harold denied.

"Oh, really?" asked the producer.

"Yes, really!" Harold asserted, "They chose them because they didn't KNOW they were evil!"

"A history buff, huh?" the producer asked, "Well, you're about to become a part of it!" Harold would only have been able to deliver the final blow if he had done the strike exactly right. He was unable to, which left the warrior with enough energy to survive but not enough that he wanted to attack someone again. Meanwhile, Harold was harmed by the arrow thrown at him. Noah felt annoyed at having to heal Harold all the time—he did not himself get hit nearly as often—but did so out of duty.

The loyal producer decided to attack his next safe person…Tyler. He said, "Tyler, Tyler, Tyler…you always wanted to be a great warrior." He looked aside. "Too bad you'll never be as good as me."

"I'll make you eat those words with syrup!" Tyler shouted, "And not maple syrup either, that crappy fake American 'table' syrup."

"How threatening," the loyal producer said flatly. He was not as fast or as strong as Tyler but he did have one thing Tyler didn't have—accuracy. As a result Noah or Harold would have to heal him right afterwards. Noah didn't want to do it again, so he made Harold do it.

Courtney boldly attempted to match strength with the warrior, but that failed, so instead she tried using her magic. "Okay, this has GOT to stop," she said.

"I'm sorry," the producer said, "But I will never surrender. All hail Chris McLean."

"If you won't surrender," Courtney said, "I will have to kill you."

"I will not die in vain," the producer responded.

Soon there were no enemies left except for the loyal producer who decided to attack Duncan out of curiosity. "Are you the most loyal producer?" Duncan asked.

"I believe I am," he answered.

"But defecting is more fun," Duncan attempted to persuade him.

"I will be the judge of that, you delinquent," the loyal producer said, shooting an arrow at Duncan and doing something almost no man could do—hitting him. Luckily, DJ was nearby to heal him.

The final blow was actually landed by an impatient Noah who thought that the battle had been going on far too long. He used wind to deliver the final blow, but right before, the loyal producer said, "I will stand by Chris my whole life." After the wind hit, he said, "Chris… I kept… my word to you," and died.

"That was… unexpected," Courtney said, "But we all made it out alive."

"Chris sent his most loyal producer to fight us," Harold said, "Do you know what that means?"

"What?" Courtney asked.

"We're very close to defeating him," Harold said.

"Don't count your blessings 'til you keep them safe and sound," Heather said.

"I've… never heard that idiom before," Harold responded.

"Well, Harold, maybe you've never met anyone smart," Heather said.

"Break it up, you two," Courtney said, "This is no time for petty arguments. We have to head towards the film lot."

"Right," Harold said, "Because that's where Chris is."

Courtney's Resistance started to return to Camp Wawanakwa.

Author's Note: Goodies for this chapter include **alternate battle dialogue (Ezekiel fights Loyal Producer), alternate versions of the beginning/ending dialogue (Harold died, Heather died, both Harold and Heather died; Lindsay/Eva died; Duncan died), Courtney and Alejandro's Support (Level A), Courtney and Bridgette's Support (Level A), Courtney and Duncan's Support (Level B), Bridgette and Geoff's Support (Level A), DJ and Duncan's Support (Level A), DJ and Leshawna's Support (Level C), Geoff and Gwen's Support (Level B), Gwen and Cody's Support (Level B), Tyler and Harold's Support (Level C), Tyler and Ezekiel's Support (Level B), Harold and Leshawna's Support (Level B), **and **Eva and Ezekiel's Support (Level C).**


	18. Escape from Wawanakwa

_Chapter 17: Escape from Wawanakwa_

Chris, the network executive, and Chef Hatchet met near the entrance to the film lot. Chris asked Chef Hatchet, "What are we going to do? They'll surely get here soon!"

"Chris," the network executive said, "If you don't deal with those children, then you can't keep the world anymore."

"I know!" Chris shouted, "Now what do we do?"

"I know!" Chef Hatchet said, "Why not find a police blockade?"

"Chef, you are a genius," Chris said. "Now we just need to find an officer." Just at that moment, someone walked by. "You, there!" Chris shouted, "Are you a member of the RCMP?"

"Why, yes I am," he answered, "What do you need?"

"Go head a police blockade," Chris said, "Do not let anyone leave Camp Wawanakwa."

"I promise to let everyone leave Camp Wawanakwa…" he said.

"No, let no one leave!" Chris corrected.

"That's what I meant," he said.

"Good," Chris said. He, Chef Hatchet, and the network executive walked away.

When they were gone, the officer said, "Oh, crap, now I actually have to try… and not only that, but I'll probably fail! Oh no…"

Courtney's Resistance were about to exit the camp. "Well," Courtney said, "We now probably have enough people to go fight Chris. Let's go."

"Uh, Courtney?" Harold said, "I think that we may have a bit of a problem."

Several Mounties were waiting around the battlefield. Most of them were on horses, but some of them had found flying mounts as well.

"Oh, great," Duncan said, "More RCMP… Just what we needed."

"Okay, everyone," the leader said, "You're all going down! I hope…"

"Alright," Courtney said, "There aren't very many of them, but they can all gang up on us."

"It would be wise to keep ourselves close to each other," Harold said, "That way we can fight them all off."

"Wait," Duncan said, "I spy an opening. I'd say these guys might be a bit inept."

"Okay," Heather said, "So we have to either make it through the crowd or fight them all… those flying ones will be a piece of cake, but the others…"

"Come on, guys, the more time we spend bickering about strategy, the less time we'll have to defeat them," Courtney said, which caused everyone to shut up.

Sixteen people were in the battle. Courtney, Duncan, Harold, and Heather stood in the front. Eva, Trent, Tyler, and Sierra were the next line. Justin, Cody, Katie, and Sadie followed closely behind. For added safety, Noah, Gwen, DJ, and Bridgette stood around.

Duncan did not fear the officer in charge and walked up to him to say, "Listen, dude. Move it."

"I'd love to," the incompetent Mountie responded, stepping to the side.

"That's Duncan," another Mountie informed him, but the phrase was utterly meaningless to the incompetent Mountie.

"Duncan Sheik?" he asked.

"No," the smarter one responded, "The guy we don't like."

"Why don't we like him? He seems like a nice guy," the incompetent Mountie said.

"Ugh," the smarter officer said, "Whatever. Send in reinforcements."

Duncan glared at the smarter officer saying, "You…"

As everyone who was fighting could attest to, however the 'reinforcements' that the incompetent Mountie sent out were barely stronger than Ezekiel, who had been sitting out three consecutive battles not out of necessity to keep the battalion to a small size, but because no one wanted him to get himself killed. Tyler was sent over to help Duncan, but the battle between those two and the "reinforcements" ended quickly and without either of them getting so much as a scratch on them.

Eva found herself getting in duels with the people mounted on dragons, which she won with ease. However, when one of the horsemen took a sword that could harm dragons and their riders greatly to her, she was injured so badly that no one in the party except Noah could heal her completely. Bridgette could too, if she had a more powerful staff with her. Eva and Noah didn't mind the arrangement, however. As for Sierra, she was just thankful that that guy didn't attack _her._

Heather took down a number of Pegasus knights by shooting them with her trusted bow, but unfortunately, she ran out of arrows before the end of the fight. Since Courtney had switched to mainly using the CI Tome, which, in addition to being full of powerful light magic, was also extremely durable, she passed her replacement bow onto the currently unarmed Heather.

Katie and Sadie likewise got into several duels with horsemen. Katie managed to beat most of them, whereas Sadie was a little bit weaker against them. One thing that is true is that Justin, who was a bit behind the others as far as battle experience went, benefitted greatly from finishing off Sadie's weakened opponents.

Gwen and Trent worked closely together with Cody and Sierra again. The four of them helped to finish off the remaining battle opponents, including one horseman with a lance that could easily become deadly. He used it on Cody, who luckily, was resilient enough to survive the blow, but Sierra was so angered by the situation that she did not allow the enemy to be so lucky. Cody was pleased to see that Gwen was the one healing him. Harold was a bit close, but he was not close enough to heal Cody immediately.

The only opponent left now was the incompetent Mountie leading it all. He should have been a cinch to beat, except for the fact that he was carrying an item that would make anyone miss, even if they were as accurate as Duncan.

Duncan attacked him, saying, "Nah, nah, nah, nah, nah! We'll beat you!"

"You seem like a nice kid," said the Mountie, "So I'm gonna let you get the first blow in."

"Fair's fair," Duncan said. He hit the first time he attacked but missed the second time. Heather, frustrated, decided to take the next shot.

"Get out of our way," she demanded.

"No," responded the Mountie.

"Then I guess I'll have to move you the hard way," Heather said. The good news is that she hit with both shots, but the bad news is that neither one got him out of the way.

Harold calculated that he could hit the Mountie at least once, but would probably not be able to hit twice, unless he very skillfully sneaked an attack in. "Who let you into the force?" he asked.

"Oh, my brother," the Mountie responded.

"Why does that not surprise me?" Harold asked.

"Because my brother is the boss!" he responded.

Harold shook his head in pity. He said, "I almost don't want to fight you. Almost."

Harold's prediction turned out to be right, as he only landed one blow on the incompetent Mountie. He switched tactics, and threw a javelin at Trent (who was himself not armed with something he could throw). He said, "I made a promise to not let anyone out. I intend to keep that promise."

Courtney shouted, "Don't block our exit!"

"Pardon me," the Mountie said, "But I think you suck."

"Hey!" Courtney shouted.

"Did I do good that time?" asked the Mountie.

"You're really incompetent," Courtney said, and she hit him with the CI Tome, which killed him.

"I…messed up," he said as he died.

"Look!" Duncan shouted, "The opening is completely unguarded. Let's go!" Courtney, Duncan, Harold, and Heather led the others out of the camp.

Meanwhile, Chris was pacing frantically, and looking like he was about to tear his hair out.

"Chris," the network executive said, "Please calm down."

"How? You've been given me so much advice to panic this entire time, and now that I actually am you don't want me to…" Chris said. "Make up your mind, Moni…"

"CHRIS!" the network executive shouted, "Don't call me that name!"

"Okay, fine," Chris said, "But they're getting so close now…"

"Chris, don't worry," the network executive said, glaring at him. "I told you that I'd take care of everything when Chef fails."

"I won't fail," Chef Hatchet said, "I've got this trusty weapon: CHEF'S HATCHET!"

"Weren't you going to tell him that was a spear?" the network executive asked Chris.

"Eh, I tried, he wouldn't listen," Chris said.

"Whether it's a 'spear' or a 'hatchet' is NOT THE POINT. The point is that, you won't have to deal with those meddling kids any longer," Chef Hatchet shouted.

"Well, in that case, I wish you luck," Chris said.

"I ain't gonna need it," Chef Hatchet answered. He laughed, and so did Chris.

Author's Note: Goodies for this chapter include **alternate battle dialogue (Ezekiel fights Incompetent Mountie), alternate versions of the beginning dialogue (Harold died; Duncan died; Heather died; two or more of them died), Courtney and Geoff's Support (Level A), Courtney and Heather's Support (Level C), Alejandro and Lindsay's Support (Level C), Katie and Trent's Support (Level A), Katie and Justin's Support (Level C), Sadie and Trent's Support (Level A), Sadie and Justin's Support (Level C), Bridgette and Leshawna's Support (Level B), DJ and Geoff's Support (Level A), Gwen and Trent's Support (Level A), Gwen and Leshawna's Support (Level B), Noah and Cody's Support (Level A), Noah and Eva's Support (Level B), Tyler and Ezekiel's Support (Level A), Tyler and Lindsay's Support (Level C), Harold and Beth's Support (Level C), Leshawna and Lindsay's Support (Level C), Heather and Lindsay's Supports (Level C), **and **Lindsay and Beth's Supports (Level C)**


	19. Bus Hopping

_Chapter 18: Bus Hopping_

"You all remember how to get to the abandoned film lot, right?" Courtney asked.

"Yes," Harold responded, "We just have to go onto that bus right over there."

"That should be easy enough," Courtney said.

"I wouldn't be so sure," a voice said.

"Hey, that's…" Duncan said. The group turned around to see Chef Hatchet on a horse. He was holding his spear and pointing it in their general direction. Around six dozen other soldiers scattered around. "This can't be good…"

"I hope all of you are prepared to die," Chef Hatchet said. "Because I have a huge battalion. Are you ready for…" Someone threw an axe at the head of the soldier to his left, and he dropped dead. "What the heck was that?"

"I'm sure you all missed me!" shouted a girl, who then began chasing everyone around with her axe, causing a third of the soldiers to leave in a riotous frenzy.

"Izzy!" Harold shouted, "We really have missed you."

"Sorry I couldn't be here earlier," she said, "But I had to get the big lug out of bed."

"The big lug? Does that mean…?" Courtney began, but before she could finish her question a powerful spear was sent at the chest of the soldier to Chef Hatchet's left.

"You been hurting my friends?" a voice yelled, "Not if I can help it." A guy in heavy armor lifted his helmet, revealing himself to be Owen. "Okay, who's next?" he asked. About half of the remaining soldiers fled.

"Perfect," Chef Hatchet said, "My unbeatable battalion was chased off by a nutball and a guy who thinks my torture-food is edible."

"Don't worry," one of the other soldiers said, "We're ready to help you, General Hatchet."

He laughed and then rode to block the bus's entrance. "Come and get me! I'm not afraid."

Courtney noticed DJ looking pensive. "What's wrong, DJ?"

"Hmm? Oh… uhh… nothing, don't worry about me," he said.

"Strange," Courtney said.

Courtney brought out Harold, Duncan, Heather, Eva, Noah, Justin, Cody, Gwen, and DJ. Owen and Izzy stood on the battlefield in wait for these decisions.

"Oh," DJ said, "I don't feel so good…"

"DJ, are you sure you're up to fighting today?" Courtney asked.

"I'm positive…" he said. DJ's unease was slightly removed when he saw his mother again. "Good to see you again, Momma," he said.

"I heard you're fighting the big ones now," his mother responded.

"We kind of are," he said.

"Well let me know if you need healing," was her reply. This was not the only reunion on the battlefield, however. Noah and Owen felt they had a lot of catching up to do.

"Noah?" Owen reacted with joyous surprise, "Noah! Thank goodness you're alive! I thought you died!"

"Honestly, I felt the same about you," Noah responded, "I've missed you."

"I've missed you too!" Owen shouted, "Come on, give me a hug!"

"Not when you're dressed like that," he objected, "You're in danger of crushing my spine enough when you're not wearing clunky armor."

"Okay," Owen said, "Well, remind me to cuddle you later."

"I know I won't have to…" Noah said smiling.

Eva was happy to see Izzy again. "Izzy!" she shouted in delight.

"Yo, Eva!" Izzy greeted, "My name is Bazookabay."

"Not again…" Eva said impatiently.

"Believe it, Eva!" Izzy shouted.

"Look," Eva said, trying her best not to lash out, "Can you just be Izzy, please?"

"Come on," Izzy said, "You're no fun."

"You're a little too much fun," Eva retorted.

"Thank you!" Izzy shouted.

Cody and Gwen were unused to fighting their battles without Trent and Sierra, which meant that they had to do a surprisingly large amount of the fighting. This was good because they got better at fighting, but bad because both of them were fairly fragile. Owen and Izzy were luckily never too far off. Anyone who attacked Izzy quickly regretted it because she had such a good record of killing them.

People who attacked Owen nary actually did any damage. The only exceptions were the mages. Noah had a few choice words for those guys, which of course resulted in them dying. Harold was fed up with Noah trying to steal all the glory, so he put in a few of the attacks to.

The archers decided it would be a good idea to gang up on Eva. They would have been right, except for the fact that Heather was nearby to shoot most of them down. One was killed instead by Justin, and Eva was grateful but refused to tell him so.

Courtney and Duncan fought off a number of powerful mercenaries—although Justin hoped that they could duel with him. When that happened it was always clear who the more powerful opponent was. Justin was not only faster than all of them, but none of them seemed to hit often at all.

When Chef Hatchet was left alone, several people attempted to attack him, although they were a bit afraid. Courtney was the first to attempt such an attack. "Chris and I are going to bring you down," he said.

"Not if I have anything to say about it…" Courtney said.

"You realize you're so doomed, right?" Chef Hatchet asked.

"I wouldn't be so quick to say so," Courtney said, and then she attacked him with the CI Tome. It hurt but it did not kill him. The same could be said for Courtney and Chef's Hatchet, although that was a more severe injury.

Duncan attempted to attack as well. "You know, thief, I could easily defeat you," Chef Hatchet said.

"Not when Courtney's life is on the line," Duncan said.

"You really want to protect her, don't you?" Chef Hatchet asked, touched.

"It's why I'm here," Duncan said.

"Then I'm sure you're prepared for my attack," Chef Hatchet said dauntingly.

"Whenever you are," Duncan said. Duncan struck, but the damage was minor. Chef Hatchet missed, surprising no one except Courtney.

Heather was irritated and decided to attack with the longbow she had pilfered from one of the archers she had killed protecting Eva, from far enough away that Chef Hatchet couldn't counterattack. "Go along, little archer," Chef Hatchet said condescendingly, "No one needs you."

Heather was angry. "Little. Archer?" she asked indignantly, "I'll have you know that I am the greatest sniper in all of the world!"

"Well in that case, I bet you can beat me," Chef Hatchet said, unimpressed.

"You're right," Heather threatened, "Bring it on." She sent out two arrows, both of which missed completely. DJ stood nearby, healing Courtney's wounds.

Chef Hatchet turned to him and said, "DJ, come fight with us. No one on that team even cares about you."

DJ was briefly tempted, and then he said, "That's not true. Bridgette cares for me quite a lot. I'm sorry, but I'm not switching teams."

Chef Hatchet was so angered by DJ's resolve that he decided to attack him. "DJ, we could have been great! We could have worked together," he said.

DJ was steadfast in his decision, saying, "Yeah, but that would have had me working on the side of evil. And I'm too insistent on the side of good."

"Well, in that case," Chef Hatchet said, "I won't go easy on you."

"I figured just as much," DJ said. Chef Hatchet would have killed him if he struck with both shots he took, but luckily, he missed the second time. DJ's mother used her Mama Staff to heal both DJ and Duncan.

Izzy was the next to attack Chef Hatchet, although he was one of the only people she was unlikely to kill in one blow. She tried her best. "Cheeeeeeefffff…" she wailed ominously.

"Izzy, don't do that," Chef Hatchet said, "It's creepy."

"I'm not Izzy," she said, "I'm Bazookabay!"

"Bazookabay?" Chef Hatchet asked.

"Did you just call me Berserker Babe?" Izzy asked angrily, "I have a name!"

"Is it Izzy?" Chef Hatchet asked impatiently.

"Yes," she responded, "Now, die!"

Unfortunately, that was not good enough to kill him. Owen attempted as well. "Bad Chef! Bad!" he shouted, "We're the good guys, remember?"

"Shut it, fat boy!" Chef Hatchet shouted.

"Well, I hate to bite the hand that feeds me," Owen said, "But if you won't listen to reason, I guess I'll have to fight you."

"I'm surprised you have the nerve, Poppin Fresh," Chef Hatchet said. The fight was completely uneventful because Chef Hatchet was too weak to hurt Owen and Owen was too slow and inaccurate to actually hit Chef Hatchet.

DJ picked up Izzy and moved her out of the way, which was an opening that Justin took. "Your beauty…" Chef Hatchet muttered, "Why must it be a lie?"

"My beauty is no lie," Justin said, "Neither is your ugliness."

"HEY!" Chef Hatchet shouted. Surprising everyone, except Izzy, Noah, and Eva, Justin was actually hit by Chef Hatchet. He was almost dead. However, he had a new plan. He had spotted Cody out of the corner of his eye, and attacked him. He laughed and then said, "I can take you down easily."

Cody was able to dodge the attack, which was good because it would have immediately killed him if he wasn't. Harold and Noah finally got the opening they were looking for, which was good because both of them, especially the latter, were getting impatient with how long the fight was taking.

Noah offered to let Harold go first, since Noah was the only person on the entire battlefield who was not affected by Chef Hatchet's daunting presence, and therefore, the only person on the entire battlefield who was almost guaranteed to kill him with the next blow. Harold took the offer graciously, regardless of the bragging reasons behind it.

"This is my coveted weapon," Chef Hatchet said, "Chef's Hatchet!"

Harold began to nitpick, "That's not a hatchet. A hatchet is an axe. That is obviously a lance. I mean, gosh, you could at least try to get it right!"

"That's it," Chef Hatchet said, "You're going down."

Harold was too slow to normally strike twice, but he was able to take advantage of his sneak attacking skills, leaving Chef Hatchet severely injured.

Noah took the case of defeating him, but Chef Hatchet was not prepared to die quietly. He said, "Feel the wrath of Chef's Hatchet!"

"That's a spear," Noah said in complete deadpan.

"Oh, really?" Chef Hatchet asked, "Why don't you show me a real hatchet?"

"How about I just hit you with my magic instead, hm?" he asked. He did, and that caused Chef Hatchet to die before he could even counterattack.

Chef Hatchet fell, saying, "Urk… the rest is up to you, Chris."

Courtney went on the bus, and everyone else followed suit. DJ was crying. "What's wrong, DJ?"

"I don't think Chef Hatchet was that bad a guy," DJ said, "We could've saved him."

"I don't think we could have if we tried," Courtney said. "But I understand you had a bond with him…"

"Well… you know," DJ said, "I guess I'll just have to deal with the pain."

"What of you two? Will you stick with us to the end?" Courtney asked.

"Of course," Owen said, "No one should ever abandon a friend in need."

"Yeah, and besides, it would be stupid to ditch you guys now. I mean, it's just getting exciting!" Izzy shouted.

"If by exciting you mean _terrifying," _Harold said.

"That's exactly what I mean," Izzy said.

Meanwhile, Chris was talking to the network executive. "Where's Chef?" he asked, "Why isn't he back yet?"

"Chris," the network executive said, "He's dead. Chef Hatchet has been killed."

"_What?" _Chris asked. "That _can't _be right! Dead? Chef… Those meddling kids have gone too far this time!" Chris shouted.

"Don't worry, Chris. I promised I would take care of everything," the network executive said. "And I will."

"You better," Chris said, "For Chef. Courtney… you're in for a world of hurt."

Author's Note: Goodies include **unit descriptions (Owen; Izzy), death quotes (Owen; Izzy), alternate battle dialogue (Chef Hatchet talks to DJ, no B support; Chef Hatchet talks to DJ, non-Bridgette B support; Alejandro fights Chef Hatchet; Ezekiel fights Chef Hatchet), alternate versions of the beginning and ending dialogue (Duncan died; DJ died; Izzy died; Owen died; both Izzy and Owen died; Harold died), Courtney and Sierra's Support (Level A), Courtney and Heather's Support (Level B), Alejandro and Lindsay's Support (Level B), Alejandro and Heather's Support (Level C), Katie and Justin's Support (Level B), DJ and Leshawna's Support (Level B), Duncan and Gwen's Support (Level A), Gwen and Leshawna's Support (Level A), Tyler and Harold's Support (Level B), Tyler and Lindsay's Support (Level B), Harold and Leshawna's Support (Level A), Harold and Heather's Support (Level C), Eva and Ezekiel's Support (Level B), Heather and Lindsay's Support (Level B), Heather and Beth's Support (Level C), Lindsay and Beth's Support (Level B), **and **Justin and Beth's Support (Level C).**


	20. Film Lot Escapade

_Chapter 19: Film Lot Escapade_

Courtney's Resistance made it to the abandoned film lot, and that's when Courtney said, "Alright, Chris! Show yourself! We've found you!"

"I'm afraid I can't let you do that," a mysterious voice said.

"Who is that?" Courtney asked.

"I'm your worst nightmare," the voice continued. The person walked out into the open and revealed herself to be the network executive. "I thought your adolescent brains would tire you out much, much sooner. But since they didn't…" She transformed herself into a dragon.

"Oh, no," Courtney said helplessly. "What are we going to do now?"

"Don't worry, Courtney," Duncan said, "We'll be able to beat her."

"It looks like there are a ton of enemies around…" Harold said, "There's no way that storming them is a good idea."

"So, what?" Heather asked, "You want us to act like docile little ragdolls?"

"No," Harold said, "That's not what I mean. I mean that we should let them come to us, and then get rid of them as they arrive."

"Harold's right," Courtney said, "We want to leave ourselves as uninjured as possible."

Courtney decided that she should bring eighteen people with her, which meant that five were made to stay behind. Those five were Ezekiel, who everyone agreed would be more of a hindrance than a help especially if they intended to keep him alive, Alejandro, who was outclassed by Katie and Sadie in almost every way, and Leshawna, Lindsay, and Beth because they had less experience in the battlefield and Courtney did not want to risk getting them killed.

Cody and Gwen were happy that Sierra and Trent were there to help their part again, staying to the west. Eva, Noah, Tyler, and Harold took the position that was next to them. Justin, Owen, and Izzy stood slightly to their east. On the other side of the battlefield, Courtney and Duncan were in front, followed by Katie and Sadie, with Geoff, Bridgette, and DJ in the back. Heather stayed in the center.

Harold's strategy soon proved effective, as there were many soldiers taken down by the group. Courtney tried to kill most of the enemies, which Duncan and Geoff were slightly annoyed by, but encouraged nonetheless. Katie and Sadie did help when there were too many for Courtney to handle by herself.

On the other side of the battlefield, Noah was trying not to do anything, because he was so far ahead of the people around him. Eva and Harold were getting close, but Tyler, who had not helped with the last battle, needed some help. Likewise, Cody and Gwen let Sierra and Trent work harder this time. Sierra was scared because her stone that kept her in dragon form was about to break.

Owen was a popular target, partly because Izzy's axe was so terrifying and nobody wanted to attack someone as hot as Justin, and partly because he, unlike them, was slow. The two of them tried to keep Owen protected, and it was wholly unclear whether they were both concerned about his health and safety, or were having some sort of perverse competition.

Courtney found herself quickly surrounded by powerful and incredibly fast swordfighters. Duncan was able to finish off one of them. Katie took another, and Sadie took a third. Katie did not kill her opponent, but rather missed. Geoff finished him off, but there was still one more left. Heather decided to do Courtney a favor and shoot an arrow at him.

There was one group of people Noah made an exception for: the mages. They always seemed to get into long pointless fights with Gwen and Harold, or failing that, going over to attack and attempt to kill Owen. Of course, Trent, Cody, Sierra, and Eva did help out. In those cases, Noah would be needed, along with Harold and Gwen, to heal their wounds, and often, one of them would be left without healing. Typically, it was Eva, as she had the useful ability to fly to where Bridgette or DJ could reach her.

Soon all of the enemies had fallen except for the network executive herself. Before any of them attacked her, they all made sure they were in as good shape as they could be. Courtney was the first to attack her. She asked, "Where is Chris?"

"You really think I'd tell the likes of you?" the network executive asked.

"If you don't," Courtney threatened, "I'll have to kill you."

"I will kill you first," the network executive said ominously. She almost managed to, but Courtney was just as able to do damage to her.

Duncan decided not to attack her because he could not hurt her nearly as much as she could hurt him. Owen was not so cautious. She looked at him and said solemnly, "Our ratings man…"

"Me?" Owen asked.

"Yeah…" responded the network executive.

"No," Owen corrected, "No one likes me."

"Plenty of people like you," the network executive commented.

"All of them like someone else better," Owen said.

"Well, in that case," the network executive said, "I don't have to feel bad about killing you."

"NOAH!" Owen scolded, not actually expecting him to hear, "Why did you tell me the fandom statistics?" Owen was not killed, but he was stricken twice, which would have killed anyone with lower defenses. On the bright side, he had managed to do significant damage to the network executive.

Another person who was less than cautious was Heather. She attacked the network executive without a moment's hesitation. The network executive attempted to strike a deal with her, "Let's just talk. Girl to girl."

"No," Heather simply replied.

"You could be a great villain," the network executive flattered her.

"Forget it," said Heather strongly, "I tried it and realized it wasn't my thing."

"You're so foolish," the network executive responded scornfully. Heather shot an arrow which did a lot of damage, but then she was hurt as well. Harold, Bridgette and Noah healed Heather, Courtney, and Owen respectively. Sierra realized that there was an opening for her as well. The battle was slightly less uneven, but Sierra's stone was weaker, not to mention at the breaking point. Attacking the network executive would completely exhaust her ability to transform until given a new stone.

"I never expected to see a fellow dragon," said the network executive.

"Move," Sierra demanded.

"I will not," responded the network executive.

"In that case, I'll burn you up," Sierra said.

"Not if I burn you up first!" the network executive threatened.

"Just you try!" she said viciously. The good news is that the network executive was close to dead. The bad news is that so was Sierra. However, Gwen was right behind to make it better.

The network executive decided to ruin Duncan's plans by attacking him from afar. He said, "Alright, tell us where McLean is… now."

"You want to see Chris…" she said pensively, "…Well, I'm sorry, I can't tell you."

"Okay," Duncan said, "When you change your mind, tell me and I won't stab you." She hurt Duncan considerably, which DJ took care of. Gwen offered to attack her, but Cody was afraid she would die. But somehow, being near him made her more resistant to the blow, and being near Trent made it easier for her to avoid the attack.

"Someone as young and impulsive as you shouldn't be fighting someone as dangerous as me!" the network executive said menacingly. Gwen _almost _got her to the point of not being able to fight. And she didn't even get hurt, thanks to Trent.

Harold decided to get the last blow in. "Monica Swift?" he asked, recognizing her for the first time.

She turned to him in anger and asked, "What. Did. You. Call. Me?"

"Monica Swift," Harold repeated, "Only the most corrupt and famous network executive east of Vancouver."

"No one calls me Monica and gets away with it, _Squealing Monk," _she said angrily.

"I was polite enough to call you by your name!" Harold said, "Gosh!" Before she could do anything about him calling her that, he hit her with a bit of light magic that took her out of commission. "No… it can't be… I die to a bunch of kids." Harold managed to grab her stone, which he would hand to Sierra later. She fell to the ground, and turned back into her human shape. She was crying.

"Listen," Courtney said, "We'll let you live if you tell us where Chris is."

"No!" she hissed. "I'd rather die here than be a traitor to one of our biggest cash cow hosts… sure, I said things to him about it being cancelled, but if it were under my power I'd never…"

"Who are you?" Courtney asked.

"My name is…Monica Swift. The world knows my name, but none may use it besides me" she said.

"Why?" Courtney asked.

"No one talks about me personally. They always mean the network… including _all _of its executives," she continued.

"And why are you working for Chris?" Courtney asked.

"I'm… I'm doing everything I can to save the network. McLean-hosted programs were what kept us afloat. If he loses to a bunch of kids… then the network… will… die…" Monica continued.

"But what about the world?" Courtney asked, "Isn't the world more important than a silly network? And hey, we could come up with new programming…"

"You'd… you'd do that…" she said. "Fine… I'll leave that… to you." She drew her last breath.

"Well, that was helpful. That old crone didn't even tell us where Chris was," Duncan said.

"DUNCAN!" Courtney snapped. "She died!"

"Yeah, because we killed her," Duncan said, "And isn't the point to find Chris?"

"Yes," Courtney said, "We have to. For the sake of the world, we have to find and beat Chris."

Author's Note: Goodies for this chapter include **alternate battle dialogue (Ezekiel fights Network Executive), alternate versions of the beginning and ending dialogue (Duncan died; Harold died; Heather died; both Harold and Heather died), Courtney and Duncan's Support (Level A), Alejandro and Lindsay's Support (Level A), Alejandro and Heather's Support (Level B), Alejandro and Owen's Support (Level C), Sadie and Justin's Support (Level B), Geoff and Duncan's Support (Level A), Noah and Eva's Support (Level A), Noah and Owen's Support (Levels C-A), Cody and Harold's Support (Level A), Tyler and Lindsay's Support (Level A), Harold and Heather's Support (Level B), Harold and Beth's Support (Level B), Leshawna and Lindsay's Support (Level B), Eva and Izzy's Support (Level C), Heather and Beth's Support (Level B), Lindsay and Beth's Support (Level A), Justin and Beth's Support (Level B), Justin and Owen's Support (Level C), **and** Owen and Izzy's Support (Level C-B)**

Edit: I apologize for not including this note earlier, but I forgot. Anyway, the "game" of Total Drama Emblem would feature a bonus on subsequent runs to the first one that would allow a spared Blaineley to become playable on Endgame IF all the other units are in the party and alive and _at least one paired ending is coming. _Should I write this version or the "first run" version without her? If I write the version with Blaineley, I would have to canonize at least one pairing, which, given the structure of the story, would most likely be Courtney/Duncan. If there are objections to that but people still want to see Blaineley in the main story, Gwen/Trent would not conflict with the narrative, and neither would the less controversial Geoff/Bridgette or the non-romantic Noah/Eva. If I write the version without Blaineley, I will not canonize any paired endings.


	21. Pending Cancellation

_Endgame: Pending Cancellation_

"Alright, Chris," Courtney shouted, "Come out, come out wherever you are."

"You called?" Chris asked.

"Yes, I did," Courtney said, approaching him. "The world has been in your control long enough, and now we have to get rid of you."

"Oh, you think you're going to get rid of me, Courtney," Chris said, "That's rich. You honestly think you can beat me? Well, in that case, _try me. _I'll be waiting for you at the other side."

"Okay, we want this fight to end with as few unnecessary casualties as possible. This means you should probably only send out the people who you deem necessary," Harold said.

"So, in other words, take out only a few people," Courtney said. "Okay, I'll do that."

Courtney took only eleven others with her. They were Harold, Duncan, Heather, Sierra, Izzy, Justin, Eva, Noah, Cody, Bridgette, and DJ.

"What a lovely group of players," Chris said, "But I don't think that you'll be able to beat me."

"You'll see about that!" Courtney said.

DJ's mother arrived on the scene. DJ rode over to greet her. "This is it, Momma," he said, "If we win this one, we'll make it out alive!"

"You sure?" she asked.

"Positive," he responded.

"Then I guess I'll have to try twice as hard," she said.

Courtney and Harold attempted to fight off large groups of men in heavy armor who thought it was hilarious to attack and surround Heather, as well as get into long, uneventful fights with Duncan. Heather and Duncan were grateful to both of them, but Heather was too proud to thank Courtney, as was Duncan too proud to thank Harold.

Six strong swordfighters found Izzy an easy target. Four of them combined to almost kill her, and two others were waiting for the opportunity to get a blow in. Eva and Noah, however, were not so easy to hurt. The former went after one of the waiting, while the latter freed Izzy from her surroundings so that she could go talk to Bridgette about her pain. Justin, attempting to curry favor from that group, killed the other waiting swordfighter.

Meanwhile, Cody and Sierra, who were upset by the fact that not only the fact that their group was smaller than usual, but also that the healer were in their group, attempted to fight cautiously. DJ noticed those two were having a bit of trouble, so he decided to offer his services to them.

The twelve had a rendezvous near Chris's location, when the four available healers did their best to make sure that the Mama Staff did not get wasted on tiny wounds when they still had yet to fight Chris.

"I see you guys are persistent little creatures," Chris said, "Well, are you prepared for my reinforcements?" Four snipers who were not as skilled as Heather but were still good enough to kill Eva quickly, three men on dragons who were not as strong as Eva, but were still dangerous to Noah, and six mages who were not as clever or powerful as Noah but were still an unavoidable threat to Heather, arrived on the scene.

Heather took down one of the riders. Harold, Courtney, and Noah did their best to beat three of the mages. Izzy knocked down a sniper, as did Justin, as did Duncan. Cody and Sierra got rid of a fourth mage and a second rider respectively. Eva got rid of the final sniper, just to protect herself. Then there were three.

The remaining rider was unintelligent and attacked Izzy. One of the remaining mages was unintelligent and attacked Noah. The other was intelligent and attacked Duncan, but unfortunately, his intelligence was not enough to make the battle worth anything, and quickly afterwards, Duncan attacked him back to kill him. Once again, the group met for the purpose of healing. Afterwards, they all went to attack Chris.

The first person to attack Chris was Heather. "This is not I even came remotely close to signing up for. I want something more suitable for me. Like a spa. Not like a war!" she shouted indignantly.

"Sorry," Chris apologized non-apologetically, "But that's the way it goes, Heather. I'm going to have to keep you here. There's something I wanted to do."

"Don't even think about it," Heather shouted. She attacked him with her bow, which was fine because he had a sword equipped at the moment.

Harold was the next person to attack him. "Gosh, Chris!" he shouted, "We've had enough of this. Just stop already!"

"I'm sorry," Chris repeated, "I'd love to, but that would require doing something someone else wanted."

"Okay," Harold said, "You've just made the death list."

"I'm surprised it took you this long…" he said. Harold was able to damage Chris significantly more.

Justin decided boldly to attempt to attack Chris. Chris was not frightened. "What are you planning to do," Chris asked, "Pretty me to death?"

"Well," Justin responded, "It's worked for me before. Besides, you probably were thinking about doing the same thing."

"Yeah, well listen," Chris negotiated, "It's pointless if we try to do that to each other. We pretty people have to stick together, ya know?"

"If I have to stick with you," Justin reasoned, "You don't get to be pretty anymore."

"You don't get to decide that!" Chris shouted, "I'm prettier than you!" Justin slashed at Chris and did some damage, although not as much as Chris did to him. Bridgette rushed over to heal him, and then rode away as quickly as she could so that Chris would not reequip and attack her.

Duncan decided to stand by, but not attack Chris. Izzy was not so cautious. "Izzy," Chris said.

"Chris," Izzy responded.

"Why don't you join my side?" Chris asked, "After all, we've always been working together. You've been my favorite the whole time, you know that?"

"I know I've been your favorite," Izzy said, "I wonder why though… and it also doesn't mean I'll do what you say!"

"Why not?" Chris asked, "We're best friends, right Izzy?"

"I have friends here," Izzy argued, "Don't hate me Chris… but, I'm siding with them."

Izzy spun around rapidly with her axe, and delivered what appeared to be the final blow to Chris. Everyone was surprised. The alleged overlord seemed far too easy to beat. But, like everything that seems too good to be true, it was.

Chris sat down on the ground. He started laughing maniacally, and his body began glowing. "You really think that was enough to kill me? I am the overlord! You're going to have to try harder than that." He equipped a lance and aimed it at Duncan.

"Duncan! My man!" Chris greeted before launching.

"Listen, Chris," Duncan said, "I ain't your man. And I will do anything to stop you."

Duncan nearly died from the blow, but thankfully DJ was around to heal him. Many people hoped to attack him, but realized that they could not do any damage to him at all. The only people who could were Sierra, who still held onto Monica's stone, and Courtney, with the CI Tome.

Sierra got the first strike in. "Why did you betray me?" she asked.

"Uh, what?" Chris asked.

"You betrayed me!" she shouted, "In my head we were always friends. And all my other friends were jealous because I had someone like you! Why would you throw that away?"

"I'm sorry, Sierra," Chris said in a way that was all too familiar, "I love having you around to stroke my ego…but apart from that, nothing was going to happen between us."

"How…how could you lie to me?" Sierra asked, starting to cry, "I won't forgive you!" She hit him with her dragon breath, which hurt, but was not nearly enough to kill him. His response did significant, albeit non-deadly damage to her.

Courtney attacked second. "Chris!" Courtney shouted, "You have taken this game way too far!"

"Sorry, Courtney," he said, once again, insincerely, "I'm just doing my job."

"No job requires this!" Courtney yelled, "This is sadistic to a new extreme!"

"Well, let's just say that if any job did require it, I would so apply for that job," Chris said.

"You're going down!" Courtney shouted, shining some light at him. Bridgette healed Courtney and was able to head away. However, Noah, who healed Sierra was unable to get out of the line of fire. Eva picked him up and planned to fly out of harm's way, but was unable to. Surprisingly, Chris moved to attack her. He said, "It's been a great game, everyone! Now, it's time for you all to be ELIMINATED!" He laughed loudly. Thankfully, he missed the first time, because even though Noah was light enough to carry, the extra weight was enough to slow Eva and the dragon down to the point where Chris could hurt her twice—which would have been enough to kill her.

Immediately afterwards, Izzy took Noah from Eva and dropped him next to Cody. Eva flew her dragon over to where Harold was, and allowed him to heal her, because Noah was still bewildered by all the people moving him. Courtney and Sierra once again tried again to kill Chris. Courtney hit Chris with a large ray of light, and Sierra hit him with her dragon breath.

Chris thought that it would be really funny to attack Noah. Chris had three quarter chances of killing him and one quarter chances of missing him completely. Noah was terrified, but irony saved him in the time he needed it the most. Sierra and Courtney did not care about Noah specifically but were angry that Chris would attack people who were not only unable to strike back but also fragile.

Sierra showed this anger by sending out a breath of flame that was three times as powerful as most. Courtney showed it by hitting Chris with a ray of light in the most lethal way possible. That was enough for Chris to die. "What… the heck?" he asked, "This wasn't supposed to happen! The show can't go on…without me…"

"Chris…" Courtney said, "You had every chance to change your ways. You never did… I'm sorry that I had to kill you… but you left me no choice…"

"Courtney," Duncan said, "Don't worry about it. It's Chris."

"I know. I know he doesn't deserve my pity. I know…" Courtney said, "It's just that…I… I just can't believe it's finally over." Courtney collapsed.

"Courtney!" Duncan shouted, concerned.

"It's okay," Harold assured, "She's only fainted."

"Well, that's still not a good thing," Duncan said, picking up Courtney. "Come on. We've gotta get out of here."

Duncan, Harold, and the others attempted to leave the room. They were stopped by a mysterious man. "Excuse me? Who are you?" he asked.

"I think we should be asking that," Duncan said, holding out his knife.

"No," the man said, "Please… I just want to know if you're the ones that killed Chris."

"We did," Duncan said. "Why?"

"We want to thank you," he said. Dozens of people walked out into the open, and applauded their efforts.

Courtney woke up from her unconscious state. "What? What's going on?"

"We're heroes!" Harold shouted, "Heroes!"

"We're… we're famous!" Heather said, "For doing something _smart!"_

Soon the room filled with more people. Everyone was erupting in applause. Courtney said, "They like us! They really like us!"

"Of course they do," Duncan said.

"Oh, Monica," Courtney said, "I don't think you have to worry about the network dying…"

"Oh my gosh!" shouted Josh, who appeared out of nowhere, then made his way through the crowd. "Can I get a scoop on the heroes?"

"Oh, absolutely," Courtney answered. The rest of Courtney's Resistance followed Josh out of the room, and then the large group of onlookers followed them out.

Author's Note: Goodies for this chapter include **unit descriptions (Blaineley), death quotes (Blaineley), alternate battle dialogue (Blaineley arrives; Courtney talks to Blaineley; Ezekiel fights Chris; Lindsay fights Chris; Blaineley fights Chris), alternate versions of the beginning and ending dialogue (Harold died; Duncan died; Heather died; both Harold and Duncan died; all of them died; Josh was not spared), Courtney and DJ's Support (Level A), Courtney and Heather's Support (Level A), Alejandro and Bridgette's Support (Level A), Alejandro and Heather's Support (Level A), Alejandro and Owen's Support (Level B-A), Katie and Justin's Support (Level A), Sadie and Justin's Support (Level A), Bridgette and Leshawna's Support (Level A), DJ and Leshawna's Support (Level A), Geoff and Gwen's Support (Level A), Gwen and Cody's Support (Level A), Noah and Izzy's Support (Level C-A), Cody and Trent's Support (Level A), Tyler and Harold's Support (Level A), Harold and Heather's Support (Level A), Harold and Beth's Support (Level A), Leshawna and Lindsay's Support (Level A), Eva and Ezekiel's Support (Level A), Eva and Izzy's Support (Level B-A), Heather and Lindsay's Support (Level A), Heather and Beth's Support (Level A), Justin and Beth's Support (Level A), Justin and Owen's Support (Level B-A), **and **Owen and Izzy's Support (Level A).**


	22. Epilogue

_Epilogue_

"Okay, everyone… I'd like to take this opportunity to thank all of you for helping me restore the world. After all, no one likes to be run by a cruel and vindictive dictator," Courtney said.

"Then why are we working for you?" Duncan asked.

"Oh, Duncan, please," Courtney said, "I want to thank you for all your help in the war."

"Well, you're welcome. It was my pleasure to help get rid of Chris," Duncan said.

"Let's just see if this can change you for the better," Courtney said.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Duncan said, "I never said you could change me."

"It's good to see you haven't changed a bit," Courtney responded.

"Courtney," Harold said, "Duncan does not require your dishonesty."

"I wasn't being _totally _dishonest," Courtney said.

"Uh-huh," Harold said sarcastically.

"Anyway, Harold," Courtney said, "I hate to admit it… but you had some great ideas."

"Some?" Harold asked.

"Okay, you had _mostly_ great ideas, are you happy?" Courtney asked.

"Not if you're not happy," Harold said.

"Okay, fine!" Courtney said, "I am forever indebted to you for the help you gave me…"

"You don't have to grovel," Harold responded, "I just didn't want you to sound indignant about having to offer a compliment to someone other than yourself."

"Speaking of giving indignant compliments…" Courtney said, "Heather, I suppose I owe you as well."

"Don't mention it, Courtney," Heather said, "I only did what I thought was necessary to save the world, repent for what I'd done in the past, and, of course, become _famous."_

"Your priorities always amaze me, Heather," Courtney said. "Alejandro!"

"Yes?" Alejandro asked.

"Thank you for saving me when I was alone," Courtney said, "I… I really feel like I owe you…"

"Nonsense," Alejandro said, "I only did what I thought was important to the cause."

"Yeah!" Katie shouted, "Same with me and Sadie."

"Katie and I are both glad to have worked for you, Courtney," Sadie said.

"Bridgette…DJ…" Courtney said, "I can't thank you guys enough. Without you two, the number of casualties would certainly have been higher."

"It's not a problem, Courtney," Bridgette said.

DJ added, "We're happy to help those in need."

"Geoff?" Courtney said, "Thank you for the sword as well."

"Like, no problem, Courtney," Geoff said, "It was totally fine."

"And where are my three star players?" Courtney asked.

"Are you talking about us?" Gwen asked.

"I most certainly was," Courtney said, "I thought that having fan favorites in the army would give me more support. But it's done something else. You guys were good."

"Of course we were," Noah said, "That shouldn't surprise anyone."

"It surprised _me," _Cody corrected.

"Only because you had no faith in yourself," Noah said.

"You don't have faith in yourself either," Cody responded.

"Only when it's about life or death, not when it's about good at or bad at," Noah answered.

"Well," Gwen said, "I guess we all surprised ourselves a little."

"Not as much as you surprised me," Courtney said. She turned to Trent and Sierra. "You two deserve my thanks as well."

"We didn't do much," Trent said humbly.

"What we did, we only did to protect all of our friends… like CODY! Right?" Sierra asked Trent.

"Right," Trent said, "We wanted to protect our friends."

"And Tyler… I hate to admit it, but you were pretty helpful too…" Courtney said.

"Of course I was!" Tyler shouted, "After all, I am a strong warrior."

"Yes," Courtney said, "I will give you that."

"Thank goodness the war is finally over!" Leshawna said. "Now I can go back to doing what I love best… not fighting!"

"It was nice to build some muscles," Eva said, "But I think that I should not kill people _anymore."_

"That's a very noble thought, Eva," Courtney said, "I'm surprised you said that."

"Don't make me change my mind by being condescending," Eva warned.

"Point taken," Courtney said. "Point taken!"

"Are you gonna thank me?" Ezekiel asked hopefully.

"Umm…" Courtney said, "Sure! Why not? After all, you did join our cause. At least you're loyal to the end."

"Yeah! I know!" Ezekiel said.

"Justin…Lindsay…Beth…" Courtney said, "Thank you for the help on the island and everything later."

"Like," Lindsay said, "We all know that helping is nice."

"Whatever. I owe you, Courtney," Justin said. "Thank you for not letting me die in a horrible gruesome way."

"You're welcome," Courtney said.

"I… strangely enough I enjoyed working with you again," Beth said.

"And… how can I forget…" Courtney said, "Owen...Izzy…"

"Yes?" Owen asked.

"What?" Izzy asked.

"Thank you for the help in the last few battles. We were seriously undermanned in the fight against Chef Hatchet, and I'm glad that you were there for us," Courtney said.

"Don't mention it!" Owen shouted, "We all love our friends."

Izzy said, "I didn't want anything bad to happen to you. Or anyone really."

"Thank you," Courtney said, "Now… I know that after today, we're going to go our separate ways… but there's something I just wanted to leave everyone with. No matter where we go in life, I want you to remember our time here. And then, whenever we feel hostile towards each other, we can remember that deep down, we always have the same goal."

**Alejandro the Reformed Villain **traveled the world as a diplomat. He had previously been accused of having ulterior motives, but no one ever said so again.

**Katie the Small and Sweet **lived in peace near her best friend Sadie, and never moved to a further location. There she found true happiness.

**Sadie the Large and Sweet **lived in peace near her best friend Katie, and never moved to a further location. There she found true happiness.

**Bridgette the Saintly Surfer **took time out of her schedule to provide for charities and protect the people who needed help. Everyone loved her.

**DJ the Sensitive Helper **never stopped working to help people and animals in need. He opened a hospital for people who were uncomfortable around hospitals. It was popular.

**Geoff the Chronic Partier **was happy to brag about all of the glorious battles that he had been in during the war. He never forgot to mention that it could have ended differently.

**Gwen the Dark Loner **never fought again, preferring to live in the peace of her own home. Flings happened now and then, but never amounted to anything serious.

**Noah the Aloof Prodigy **went back to school, learning all sorts of things that he could not use practically in business in the peaceful world. He brushed off everyone telling him so.

**Cody the Pathetic Geek **used his new battle credibility to pick up ladies. Surprising nobody except for Cody himself and one other person, it worked.

**Trent the Hopeless Romantic **did not try to become popular with the ladies, but every time he brought up his time in the war, they all swooned anyway. He was not unhappy.

**Sierra the Huge Fangirl **had no problems with the people she once knew even after being outed to them as a dragon. However, she was mostly discreet about this information publicly.

**Tyler the Clumsy Jock **had now become ripped thanks to his work in the battlefield. Even the (many) teammates who exceeded him greatly in skill level envied him.

**Leshawna the Lady of War **was happy that the fighting was finally over. For the rest of her life, she was hoping no new war would arrive. That didn't mean she wasn't on her guard.

**Eva the Warrior Woman **worked at a gym, and she did not forget her experience in the war. It had proven to be a helpful way to release her anger. Yet, she didn't miss it.

**Ezekiel the Homeschooled Kid **bragged to his relatives about his time in the war. No one believed him, but he spent the rest of his life attempting to dig up proof.

**Justin the Pretty Boy** was glad to finally be free of the battles, so that he could stop scarring himself. Ironically, the scars did not mar him but made him even better-looking.

**Lindsay the Dim Bombshell **never again went to fight, but rather spent the rest of her life in safety. She was able to keep her Pegasus, which she doted on all her life.

**Beth the Nerdy Wannabe **returned to her old life with Brady. He could never manage to get her to stay put but she did try to include him in her interests and activities.

**Owen the Fat and Happy **was glad that the world could live in peace. After the war, he opened a day care center where he could spend time playing with kids all day.

**Izzy the Certified Nutball **promised that she would only pick up an axe again if people in the world started to cross her. She never had to worry about following through.

**Heather the Ornery Bow **did not continue her fighting ways, although she did practice shooting constantly. One day, she hoped to surpass every archer in history.

**Harold the Squealing Monk **boasted about the ideas he had in the war, and about how the world would still be in jeopardy if it wasn't for him. Only half the listeners rolled their eyes.

**Duncan the Rebellious Criminal **went back to his old ways of petty crime. Sources say that he disappeared to the United States after the war. No one knows why.

**Courtney the Guiding Light **never forgot the experiences she had in the war…it made her a kinder and friendlier person in everyday life. Rumors say she was happier that way.

_And the world became free and peaceful once again. These young heroes all accomplished the one goal to protect the others. It may be said they matured at the same time._

_Fin._

Author's Note: Goodies for this chapter include **major changes to the ending (Duncan died; Harold died; Alejandro died; Noah died; Cody died; Gwen died; Trent died; Sierra died), Blaineley's ending, Courtney and Duncan's paired ending, Alejandro and Heather's paired ending, Bridgette and Geoff's paired ending, Duncan and Gwen's paired ending, Gwen and Cody's paired ending, Gwen and Trent's paired ending, Noah and Cody's paired ending, Noah and Eva's paired ending, Harold and Leshawna's paired ending, Harold and Beth's paired ending, Tyler and Lindsay's paired ending, Justin and Beth's paired ending, Justin and Owen's paired ending, **and **Owen and Izzy's paired ending.**


End file.
